SpaceX gives Starship megarocket a redesign ahead of next flight. When will it launch?

A new-and-improved Starship is due to soar halfway across the world in a matter of days.

SpaceX has announced a target launch date for a mission referred to as flight 10, which will undoubtedly be a critical test for the gigantic 400-foot Starship spacecraft.

For one thing, it’s been nearly three months since SpaceX last conducted an uncrewed flight test from Texas for a vehicle that was intended to begin launching more frequently in 2025. And for another, the commercial spaceflight company founded by billionaire Elon Musk has struggled this year to repeat the successes of previous Starship test flights.

The first two Starship launches of 2025 ended with the vehicle’s upper stage, where astronauts would one day ride, exploding mere minutes into the missions. While Starship streaked further through suborbital space during the most recent May 27 launch, the vehicle still met an untimely end when it spun out of control about halfway through its flight without achieving some of its most important objectives.

SpaceX’s 10th flight test since April 2023 was then delayed June 18, when the upper stage, simply known as Starship, unexpectedly exploded on the test stand before it was mounted to the rocket booster.

As SpaceX gears up for the highly anticipated Starship mission, here’s what to know about how the company is redesigning the spacecraft for better performance.

When is the next Starship launch from Starbase in Texas?

SpaceX has announced plans to conduct the 10th flight test of its Starship spacecraft Sunday, Aug. 24, with a target liftoff time of 6:30 p.m. CT.

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.

Starbase, which Texas voters in Cameron County approved in May to become its own town, attracted some controversy in June when commissioners with the city of Starbase voted unanimously to close several of the city’s public streets to outsiders, angering longtime residents and property owners.

Musk had long been hinting on social media that a flight test for Starship was due in August. Most recently, the tech mogul had suggested Aug. 1 on X, the social media platform he owns, that the launch could take place in the middle of the month.

SpaceX redesigns Starship ahead of flight 10

SpaceX also revealed a redesign to Starship earlier in August after the first three test flights of 2025 all ended in dramatic explosions in the sky.

This time around, the Super Heavy booster will feature three grid fins used to help it land instead of four, which SpaceX said in a post on X will improve “vehicle control while enabling the booster to descend at higher angles of attack.” The fins are 50% larger and “higher strength” than previous versions, according to SpaceX.

Though SpaceX does not have plans to attempt to return the booster to the launch site during flight 10, the company added that the new fins are positioned lower on the booster to align with the mechanical “catch arms” on the tower that has caught Super Heavy in three different demonstrations.

What is Starship? What to know about explosions in 2025

SpaceX is developing Starship to be a fully reusable transportation system, meaning both 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.

But the next-generation spacecraft has yet to reach orbit on any of its nine uncrewed flight tests, which began in 2023.

SpaceX received key regulatory approval earlier in 2025 to conduct up to 25 Starship tests a year, after which Musk took to social media to proclaim that the vehicle’s next three launches would occur much faster than normal – at a cadence of one “every 3 to 4 weeks.”

How big is Starship?

The Starship, standing nearly 400 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. That size makes Starship large enough to tower over SpaceX’s famous 230-foot-tall Falcon 9 – one of the world’s most active rockets.

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.

Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Starship flight 10: SpaceX revamps megarocket ahead of next launch