This topic discusses the forthcoming SpaceX ninth flight test of the integrated Starship (#35) and Super Heavy booster (#14), currently scheduled for launch no earlier than 2025-05-27 23:30 UTC with a 90 minute launch window. The planned flight, if successful, will launch the craft on a near-orbital trajectory, with the first stage booster performing a boost back burn and hard water landing in the Gulf of America, and the upper stage Starship accelerating to a velocity slightly less than orbital speed, causing it to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere over the Indian Ocean.
In addition to attempting to address Starship RUD and RUD Part Deux, key differences from the last flight surround the booster. This is a re-flight of booster 14 and 29 of 33 engines. As such, SpaceX does not want to risk damaging Starbase with a problem on return. But this also lets them attempt a fuel efficient high angle of attack descent. And then they will simulate a core engine failure on landing and attempt to relight a middle ring engine to compensate. This will be done at a sufficiently high altitude to give time to develop good data, thus leading to the hard landing.