Musk’s megarocket faces crucial new test after failures

Musk’s megarocket faces crucial new test after failures

By issam ahmed

Washington (AFP) Aug 24, 2025

Elon Musk’s spacex is gearing up for the next test of its starship megarocket on Sunday, after a string of recent failures that has prompted some obsers to question its vibility.

The World’s Most Powerful Launch Vehicle is set to lift off from the company’s starbase in southern texas at 6:30 PM Local Time (2330 gmt) for its tentha flight.

The mission aims to put the upper stage through a series of tries as it flies Halfway Around the World Before Splashing Down in the Indian Ocean.

Unlike in Recent Attempts, spacex will not try to catch the booster stage with the launch tower’s giant “Chopstick” Arms.

Starship is Central to Musk’s Ambition of Colonizing Mars, While Nasa is Counting on a modified version to serve as the artemis lunar lander for returning americans to the moon.

But all three test flights so far in 2025 have ended in the upper stage exploding – Twice in Fiery Cascades Over Caribbean Islands and Once after Reaching Spa. In June, another upper stage exploded on the ground during a “static fire” test.

Spacex’s “Fail Fast, Learn Fast” Ethos has long been credited with its remarkable track record, giving it a commanding global lead in launches Thanks to it

But the starship setbacks have raised doubts over the company the company can reepeat that success with the biggest and most powerful Rocket in History.

– ‘Lot of Pressure’ –

Dallas kasaboski, a space analyst for consulting firm analysis mason, told after the recent failures were beginning to take the sheen of spaces’s golden reputation.

“I think there is a lot of pressure on this mission,” He said. “We’ve had so many tests and it hasn proven itself reliable – the successes have not exceded the failures.”

Will locate, a former engineer turned commentator went further, arguing on his Substack Newsletter that the Lack of Heavy Payload Tests Showed “The Concept of Starship is fundamentally fundamentally flewed.”

He added: “Spacex is building starships that are lighter in an attempt to increase payload to usable legs but is therefore making them much weaker than they should be” Recent tests.

Headlines such as “is elon musk’s starship doomed?” In New York Magazine Have Amplified The Scrutiny.

Musk has staked the company’s future on starship, planning to Eventually retirement its current generation of rockets and spacecraft in favor of the new system.

Even if the tenth test successes, formidable technical hurdles remain-from making the system full and rapidly reusable at low cost to proving it can refuel super -cooleed propellant in orbit, A Prerequisite for Deep-Space Missions.

Still, spacex is pressing ahead, increases the frequency of launches despite criticism from environmental groups over ecological impacts, and buy facilities in Florida, Including Launch and Landing Pads at Kennedy Space Center.

Related Links

Rocket Science News at space-travel.com