Starship flight 10: When is liftoff, what SpaceX hopes to accomplish on next launch

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  Nearly three months have elapsed since SpaceX last conducted a flight test for a vehicle that billionaire Elon Musk has hoped to begin launching more often.

• Progress has stymied in 2025 as Starship has met a few untimely explosive midair ends between January and May, followed by a fiery ground mishap in June.

• For SpaceX and Musk, the pressure is on as they race to develop a vehicle that the tech mogul has promised could be launching for Mars in 2026 and used in a NASA astronaut lunar mission.

The time is coming for SpaceX's gargantuan Starship launch vehicle to take off once again from the company's South Texas headquarters.

Nearly three months have elapsed since SpaceX last conducted a flight test for a vehicle that billionaire Elon Musk, the commercial rocket company's founder, has hoped to begin launching more often. But progress has stymied in 2025 as Starship has met a few untimely explosive midair ends between January and May, followed by a fiery ground mishap in June that delayed a mission SpaceX refers to as flight 10.

Once again, anticipation is high – as are the stakes – as SpaceX prepares for the next uncrewed Starship demonstration.

For SpaceX and Musk, the pressure is on as they race todevelopa vehicle that the tech mogul has promised could be launching for Mars in 2026and used in a NASA astronaut lunar mission as early as 2027.

Here's everything to know ahead of Starship's 10th flight test since April 2023.

When is the next Starship launch?

SpaceX plans to conduct the 10th flight test of its Starship spacecraft Sunday, Aug. 24, with a target liftoff time of 7:30 p.m. ET.

Where does SpaceX launch Starship? What to know about Starbase

SpaceX conducts Starship test flights from the company's Starbase headquarters in South Texas, located about 23 miles from Brownsville near the U.S.-Mexico border. Texas voters in Cameron County approved a measure in May for Starbase to become a city, complete with a mayor and a city council.

Starship flight 10: What is SpaceX planning for next launch?

During three separate Starship launches since October, SpaceX has proven it's capable of returning and "catching" the massive spacecraft's rocket booster at its South Texas launch site.

Now, the rocket company is turning its attention elsewhere: Safely returning and landing the vehicle's upper stage, where a crew of astronauts would one day ride to space.

The objective is just one of several for SpaceX. Also on tap? A fourth shot at deploying test Starlink satellites – an objective SpaceX has been unable so far to pull off.

As for the rocket booster, known as Super Heavy, it's intended to attempt several in-flight experiments before making a water landing off the Gulf of Mexico, which the U.S. government has renamed the Gulf of America.

How to watch livestream of Starship test flight from Texas

SpaceX will host a livestream of the flight test that will begin about 30 minutes before liftoff.

The webcast is available on its website and on social media platform X. Coverage will also be available on SpaceX's new X TV app.

What is Starship?

SpaceX is developing Starship to be a fully reusable transportation system, meaning the rocket and vehicle can return to the ground for additional missions.

In the years ahead, Starship is set to serve a pivotal role in future U.S. spaceflight. Starship is the centerpiece of Musk's vision of sending the first humans to Mars, and is also critical in NASA's plans to return astronauts to the moon's surface.

How big is Starship?

The Starship, standing 403 feet tall when fully stacked, is regarded as the world’s largest and most powerful launch vehicle ever developed. When fully integrated, the launch system is composed of both a 232-foot Super Heavy rocket and the 171-foot upper stage Starship itself, the spacecraft where crew and cargo would ride.

Super Heavy alone is powered by 33 of SpaceX’s Raptor engines that give the initial burst of thrust at liftoff. The upper stage Starship section is powered by six Raptor engines that will ultimately travel in orbit.

Will Starship travel to Mars? About Elon Musk's plan

Billionaire Elon Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 with the vision of paving the way to create a self-sustaining permanent city on the Red Planet.

Why? To fulfill his vision of of "making life multiplanetary" and ensuring humanity's long-term survival.

Musk wants to send the first uncrewed Starship to Mars by the end of 2026 for a very critical reason: The timeline coincides with an orbital alignment around the sun that would shorten the journey between Earth and Mars. Crewed trips with humans would then follow most likely in the early 2030s, Musk has claimed.

Why did Starship explode? SpaceX, FAA investigate recent mishaps

While SpaceX made steady progress in Starship's development in 2024, the vehicle has endured a few explosive setbacks in 2025.

After previously releasing findings into the first two Starship explosions in January and March, SpaceX has unveiled the results of investigations for the two most recent mishaps ahead of flight 10.

A structural failure to the booster’s fuel transfer tube and a failure to the Starship capsule's main fuel tank pressurization system led to an untimely end to flight 9 on May 27, SpaceX concluded. Then on June 18, undetected damage to a high-pressure nitrogen storage tank inside Starship's payload bay section caused the vehicle to explode while on the test stand.

How often will Starship launch? Will it launch from Florida? 

The Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial rocket launches, gave approval in May for SpaceX to conduct as many as 25 Starship test flights a year as Musk seeks to ramp up development of the Mars-bound spacecraft.

Following the most recent May 27 flight test, Musk proclaimed on social media that the vehicle's next three launches would occur much faster than normal – at a cadence of one "every 3 to 4 weeks."

SpaceX also has designs on expanding Starship operations to Florida at both the Kennedy Space Center and the Cape Canaveral Space Force Base, with plans to conduct a Sunshine State launch potentially by the end of 2025.