

SpaceX
SpaceX Falcon Heavy completes successful rehearsal, static fire pushed back due to bug in launch pad hardware
More than a decade after its 2005 public conception, SpaceX is closer than ever to the first launch Falcon Heavy, the company’s newest rocket. Earlier this afternoon, the vehicle was aiming for its first static fire test, in which all 27 of its engines would be ignited (nearly) simultaneously in order to test procedures and the rocket itself. This attempt was sadly scrubbed, but only after the vehicle apparently completed a successful wet dress rehearsal, which saw Falcon Heavy fully loaded with propellant. According to Orlando’s News 13, the attempt was scrubbed only after one of eight hold-down clamps showed signs of bugs.

Falcon Heavy vertical at Pad 39A on Thursday, January 11. After a successful rehearsal, the static fire was scrubbed due to a small hardware bug. (Tom Cross/Teslarati)

Falcon Heavy vertical at Pad 39A on Thursday, January 11. After a successful rehearsal, the static fire was scrubbed due to a small hardware bug. (Tom Cross/Teslarati)
While Falcon Heavy is not explicitly critical for SpaceX’s near-term launch business and its loftier future goals, the development and operation of such a massive launch vehicle will likely serve as a strong foundation as the company transitions more aggressively into the design, engineering, and manufacture of its still-larger BFR series of rocket boosters and upper stages. Falcon Heavy stands approximately as tall as Falcon 9 at around 70 m (230 ft), but features three times the thrust and a little less than three times the weight of SpaceX’s workhorse rocket. With 27 Merlin 1D engines to Falcon 9’s namesake nine, Falcon Heavy’s 22,800 kN (5,000,000 lbf) of thrust is a nearly inconceivably amount of power, equivalent to twenty Airbus A380 passenger jets at full throttle.
Why is Falcon Heavy important?
If SpaceX manages to pull off Falcon Heavy as a successful and reliable launch vehicle on the order of its reasonably successful Falcon 9, BFR may well be an easier vehicle to develop and operate, thanks to its single-core design. As Musk himself has discussed over the last year or so, the problem of safely and reliably distributing the thrust of Heavy’s side cores to the center core was unexpectedly difficult, as were the issues of igniting all 27 Merlin 1Ds and safely separating the side cores while in flight. Ultimately, the payload improvement (while in a fully reusable mode of operation) was quite small, particularly for the geostationary missions that make up essentially all prospective Falcon Heavy customer missions.
The additional complexity of recovery and refurbishing three separate Falcon 9 boosters almost simultaneously likely serves to only worsen the vehicle’s potential payoff, although the upcoming Block 5 iteration of Falcon 9 may partially improve the vehicle’s ease of operation. If Block 5 is indeed as reusable as SpaceX intends to make it, then a handful of Block 5 Falcon Heavy vehicles could presumably maintain a decent launch cadence for the vehicle without requiring costly and time-consuming shipping all over the continental US.

A closeup of Falcon Heavy’s three first stages, all featuring grid fins. The white bars in the center help to both distribute stress loads and separate the side cores from the center booster after launch. (SpaceX)
Nevertheless, the (hopefully successful) experience that will follow the launch and recovery operation of a super heavy-lift launch vehicle (SHLV) with ~30 first stage engines will be invaluable for SpaceX’s interplanetary goals. While BFR will be free of the complexity Falcon Heavy’s triple-core first stage added, it is still a massive vehicle that absolutely dwarfs anything SpaceX has attempted before. BFR in its 2017 iteration would mass around three times that of Falcon Heavy and feature 30 Raptor engines capable of approximately 53,000 kN (12,000,000 lbf) of thrust at liftoff, around 2.5x that of Heavy. Many, many other features mean that BFR and particularly BFS will be extraordinarily difficult to realize: BFS alone will be treading into truly unprecedented areas of spaceflight with the scale, longevity, and reusability it is intended to achieve while comfortably ferrying dozens of astronauts to and from Mars and the Moon.
However, the scale of BFR is equivalent to that of the famous Saturn V rocket that took astronauts to the Moon in the 1960s and 70s. In other words, while still dumbfoundingly massive and unprecedented in the modern era, rockets at the scale of BFR do in fact have a precedent of success, which lends the effort considerable plausibility, at least at proof-of-concept level. As of September 2017, Elon Musk suggested that SpaceX was aiming to begin construction of the first BFS (Big ____ Spaceship) by the end of Q2 2018, a truly Muskian deadline that probably wont hold. Still, if construction of the first prototype begins at any point in 2018, it will bode well for SpaceX’s aggressive timelines.
- Falcon Heavy’s three boosters and 27 Merlin 1D engines on full display. (SpaceX)
- BFR shown to scale with Falcon 1, 9, and Heavy. (SpaceX)
- .While SpaceX’s own visualizations are gorgeous and thrilling in their own rights, Romax’s interpretation adds an unparalleled level of shock and awe. (SpaceX)
In the meantime, BFR’s precursor Falcon Heavy has effectively completed its first wet dress rehearsal, although the static fire attempt was scrubbed for the day. This is understandable for such a complex and untested vehicle, especially after SpaceX’s exceptionally quick modifications to Pad 39A. While unofficial, word is that an issue with one of the Transport/Erector/Launcher’s (TEL) eight separate launch clamps caused the scrub. Those launch clamps ensure that the massive vehicle would stay put during a static fire, and the status of those clamps would be especially important during such an unusually long static fire of such a powerful rocket.
Stay tuned for updates on SpaceX’s upcoming launches and Falcon Heavy’s next static fire attempt, likely within the next several days. The vehicle’s inaugural launch date is effectively up in the air until the static fire has been successfully completed, but as of yesterday SpaceX was understood to be targeting January 26th. Delays are to be expected.
Follow along live as Teslarati’s launch photographer Tom Cross weathers the delays and covers the static fire attempt live from Cape Canaveral.
News
SpaceX calls off Starship 10 flight attempt once again
SpaceX is calling off a potential launch of Starship this evening, marking the second consecutive night the tenth test flight of the massive rocket will be delayed.

SpaceX is calling off a potential launch of Starship this evening, marking the second consecutive night the tenth test flight of the massive rocket will be delayed.
Originally planning to launch on Sunday at 6:30 p.m. local time in Starbase, Texas, SpaceX was forced to delay the tenth launch of Starship due to a hardware issue.
“Ground side liquid oxygen leak needs to be fixed. Aiming for another launch attempt tomorrow,” CEO Elon Musk posted on the social media platform X.
Starship Flight 10 rescheduled as SpaceX targets Monday launch
The launch was then pushed to Monday night, and the launch window was set to start at the same time as Sunday. However, SpaceX would push it back to 6:44 p.m. due to some weather issues.
Eventually, Starship seemed like it was trending toward a launch, but weather continued to persist in the area, with thunder, rain, and lightning all threatening in the area.
At around 7:03 p.m., SpaceX decided to stand down once again, confirming weather was the culprit of yet another delay:
Launch called off for tonight due to anvil clouds over launch site (lightning risk)
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 26, 2025
SpaceX will likely try again on Tuesday night, but the company has not yet confirmed if it will open another launch window.
News
WATCH: SpaceX Starship Flight 10 launch

SpaceX is set to launch its tenth test flight of the Starship program, with a launch window that will open at 6:44 p.m. local time, or 7:44 p.m. on the East Coast.
Starship’s tenth test flight was originally scheduled for launch yesterday with a one-hour window that opened at 7:30 p.m. ET, but it was called off 17 minutes before that window even had a chance to open.
Starship Flight 10 rescheduled as SpaceX targets Monday launch
SpaceX moved the flight to tonight. It was also originally scheduled to have a launch window at the same time as Sunday, but it was pushed back 14 minutes to around 6:30 p.m. ET. There are storms in the area, as well as clouds over Starbase, so there is the off chance for another launch delay.
There are several big objectives for this launch, including the expansion of the operating envelope for the Super Heavy booster. SpaceX says there are “multiple landing burn tests planned.”
The booster will also be performing a few in-flight experiments to help with data collection. Specifically, real-world performance data on future flight profiles and off-nominal scenarios will be on the list of things SpaceX will be looking for.
Starship itself will have a few in-flight objectives that include the deployment of eight Starlink simulators that are similar in size to the next-gen satellites for the internet service. SpaceX was set to test this with Starship’s seventh test flight, which occurred in January 2025. However, the task was abandoned as the vehicle was destroyed before deployment could occur.
Liftoff conditions are currently looking favorable, and SpaceX will be eager to improve upon its Starship launch program as CEO Elon Musk has big plans for it in the coming years.
You can watch the launch below via SpaceX:
Watch Starship’s tenth flight test → https://t.co/UIwbeGoo2B https://t.co/MQg9ZAjCip
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 25, 2025
News
Starship Flight 10 rescheduled as SpaceX targets Monday launch
SpaceX said it is now targeting Monday evening for Starship’s 10th flight test.

SpaceX stood down from its planned Starship Flight 10 on Sunday evening, citing an issue with ground systems.
The launch attempt was scheduled during a one-hour window that opened at 7:30 p.m. ET, but it was called off just 17 minutes before the window opened. SpaceX said it is now targeting Monday evening for Starship’s 10th flight test.
Flight 10 rescheduled
A lot of excitement was palpable during the lead up to Starship Flight 10’s first launch window. After the failures of Starship Flight 9, many were interested to see if SpaceX would be able to nail its mission objectives this time around. Starship itself seemed ready to fly, with the upper stage being loaded with propellant as scheduled. Later on, SpaceX also noted that Starship’s Super Heavy booster was also being loaded with propellant.
However, 17 before the launch window opened, SpaceX noted that it was “standing down from today’s tenth flight of Starship to allow time to troubleshoot an issue with ground systems.” Elon Musk, in a post on X, further clarified that a “ground side liquid oxygen leak needs to be fixed.” Musk did state that SpaceX will attempt Flight 10 again on Monday, August 25, 2025.
Starship and SpaceX’s development goals
The fully integrated Starship system is the tallest and most powerful rocket ever built, standing over 400 feet when stacked. Composed of the reusable Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage, the vehicle is central to SpaceX’s long-term ambitions of lunar and Martian missions. NASA has already selected Starship as the crewed lunar lander for Artemis, with its first astronaut landing mission tentatively set for 2027, as noted in a Space.com report.
So far, Starship has flown nine times from Starbase in Texas, with three launches this year alone. Each flight has offered critical data, though all three 2025 missions encountered notable failures. Flight 7 and Flight 8 ended in explosions less than 10 minutes after launch, while Flight 9 broke apart during reentry. Despite setbacks, SpaceX has continued refining Starship’s hardware and operations with each attempt. Needless to say, a successful Flight 10 would be a significant win for the Starship program.
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