SpaceX plans to launch its Starship megarocket on its next test flight on Monday, roughly six weeks after the vehicle’s upper stage blew up over the Atlantic Ocean during the last such test.
In that mishap on Jan. 16, SpaceX lost communication with Starship about eight minutes into the flight, and the vehicle’s subsequent explosion sent debris streaking through the sky. Dust and small pieces rained over parts of Turks and Caicos, but local authorities said there were no injuries.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration launched an investigation after the accident and grounded the rocket during the probe. On Friday, the agency cleared Starship to return to flight but said its investigation remains open.
SpaceX’s own investigation found that the likely root cause was leaking propellant in a section of Starship known as the “attic,” which is located between the bottom of the liquid oxygen tank and the rear heat shield.
The leak likely sparked “sustained fires” that eventually caused “all but one of Starship’s engines to execute controlled shut down sequences,” SpaceX said in an update on Monday.
The company said it stopped receiving data just over eight minutes into the test flight, and that the vehicle broke apart three minutes after that.
SpaceX said it has since made “several hardware and operational changes” to Starship’s upper stage, but the company did not specify what those upgrades were.
The upcoming test flight, Starship’s eighth, was originally scheduled for Friday; no explanation was provided for the short delay.
The FAA, which signed off on the flight, is one of many federal agencies that the Trump administration has targeted for budget and personnel cuts. Reuters reported that the Department of Government Efficiency, led by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, has infiltrated FAA facilities and that SpaceX engineers have been working at the agency as special government employees.
It’s unclear whether DOGE employees have had a presence within the FAA’s commercial spaceflight division, which oversees private companies like SpaceX, but some lawmakers and critics, including Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., have nonetheless raised concerns about Musk’s conflicts of interest.
If Starship launches as intended on Monday, it will attempt to release four mock Starlink satellites during the flight. If successful, that would mark the first time the vehicle has deployed a payload.
The plan also calls for the megarocket’s hulking first stage to return to the launchpad after separating from the second stage, and for SpaceX to “catch” it there using giant mechanical arms on the rocket’s launch tower. SpaceX completed that part as intended during the January flight, leading the company to deem the test a partial success.
The catch maneuver is a key part of SpaceX’s goal to make Starship a fully reusable rocket system.
If all goes according to plan, the vehicle’s upper stage will fly for about an hour on Monday before splashing down in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia.
Starship is the most powerful rocket ever developed, measuring 400 feet tall. The system has two parts: a first-stage booster known as Super Heavy and an upper-stage spacecraft.
It is expected to play a crucial part in NASA’s efforts to return to the moon. The agency selected SpaceX to carry astronauts to the lunar surface during NASA’s planned Artemis III mission, which is scheduled to launch in 2027. Musk has also said Starship could be used for future missions to Mars.