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SpaceX's next launch ready to go just weeks after in-flight engine failure

SpaceX is just a week away from its seventh launch of the year, set to lift off just weeks after the company suffered its first in-flight engine failure since 2012. (Richard Angle)

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6 years ago

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Just weeks after SpaceX suffered its first in-flight rocket engine failure since 2012, the company has scheduled its next launch on April 16th.

Set to lift off no earlier than (NET) 5:31 pm EDT (21:31 UTC) from NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Launch Complex 39A (Pad 39A), the mission will be SpaceX’s seventh dedicated launch of 60 Starlink satellites. Known as Starlink-6 in reference to the sixth launch of finalized Starlink v1.0 spacecraft, a successful mission could leave SpaceX with some ~410 operational satellites in orbit – significantly more than twice as big as the next largest constellation.

More importantly, Starlink-6 will mark a sort of return-to-flight for Falcon 9 after booster B1048 suffered an in-flight engine failure and missed its landing attempt on March 18th. While the booster was able to sacrifice itself to ensure that the overall Starlink-5 mission was a success, any in-flight failure is still a significant event in aerospace. To that end, very little is known about the Starlink-5 anomaly, aside from announcements that both NASA and the US Air Force will be paying close attention to the results of SpaceX’s internal investigation. Starlink-6’s imminent launch is now the latest piece of that puzzle, shedding some welcome light on the situation.

Just weeks after Falcon 9 B1048 suffered SpaceX’s first in-flight engine failure in almost eight years, the company is ready for its next launch. (Richard Angle)

Unsurprisingly, an in-flight Falcon 9 engine failure more than piqued the curiosities of high-profile SpaceX customers like NASA and the US Air Force (and Space Force), both of which have some of the company’s most important launches ever scheduled within the next few months. Most notably, NASA noted on March 25th that the space agency and SpaceX “are holding the current mid-to-late May [target for Crew Dragon’s inaugural astronaut launch] and [will] adjust the date based on review of the [engine failure] data, if appropriate.”

At time of comment, a few aspects of the unfortunate Starlink-5 engine failure were already positioned in SpaceX’s favor. Critically, it was the first time that a flight-proven Falcon 9 booster launched on its fifth orbital-class mission, meaning that the very same booster – B1048 – had already launched four times prior. In aerospace parlance, the mission thus served as a pathfinder for SpaceX’s reusable rocketry technology, venturing into new territory. Since it began internal Starlink launches, SpaceX has used those opportunities to take its most recent reusability leaps without risking customer payloads in the process.

SpaceX completed its first Starlink launch on May 23rd, flying B1049 for the third time. SpaceX's next Starlink launch will very likely mark the first time a booster has flown four orbital-class missions. (SpaceX)
Assigned to SpaceX’s Starlink v0.9 mission, Falcon 9 B1049 became the first booster to launch and land four times in May 2019. (SpaceX)
Marking the second use of a flight-proven payload fairing and first time booster attempted to launch and land for the fifth time, B1048 also tested the limits during a Starlink mission. (Richard Angle)

At least for now, neither NASA or the USAF have plans to fly their most valuable payloads on flight-proven Falcon boosters. While that may change over the next several years, it means that SpaceX’s Starlink-5 anomaly and missions like Crew Dragon Demo-2 and GPS III SV03 – both set to fly on new boosters – share much less commonality. Of course, this assumes that B1048’s March 18th engine failure is directly related to the booster’s exceptionally flight-proven nature. Were SpaceX’s investigation to conclude that the fault had nothing to do with multi-launch wear and tear, it would likely ground Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy indefinitely.

Despite a relatively hard landing after its third launch, Falcon 9 booster B1051 is scheduled to fly its fourth mission – Starlink-6 – just 79 days later. (Richard Angle)

Instead, SpaceX – knowing full-well the potential consequences of two consecutive in-flight failures – has decided to attempt another orbital-class Starlink launch and booster landing less than a month after Starlink-5. To be clear, while SpaceX could choose to throw caution to the wind on an internal launch, it’s doubtful that it would haphazardly take such a substantial risk. Instead, Starlink-6’s April 16th launch date strongly suggests that SpaceX is already reasonably confident that it’s both determined the likely culprit of last month’s engine failure and identified ways to prevent its reoccurrence.

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Eric Ralph is Teslarati's senior spaceflight reporter and has been covering the industry in some capacity for almost half a decade, largely spurred in 2016 by a trip to Mexico to watch Elon Musk reveal SpaceX's plans for Mars in person. Aside from spreading interest and excitement about spaceflight far and wide, his primary goal is to cover humanity's ongoing efforts to expand beyond Earth to the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere.

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Elon Musk

Elon Musk and Trump are closer than ever, and Tesla could be the big winner

Elon Musk sat beside Trump as AI leaders signed a voluntary White House safety accord.

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4 hours ago

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September 29, 2026

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Elon Musk had the seat right next to President Donald Trump on Tuesday as the White House hosted the leaders of America’s biggest artificial intelligence companies for a lunch that ended with a voluntary industry accord on AI safety.

A seating chart Trump posted on Truth Social placed Musk at the president’s left in the East Room, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on his right, according to an Associated Press reporter. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Sundar Pichai, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also attended, along with Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson.

After the lunch, Trump told reporters outside the West Wing that the executives had signed “The White House Accord on Superintelligence: A Joint Commitment on Frontier SI Responsibilities.” Johnson described it as a voluntary statement of principles built on “robust internal controls and layers of internal and external review,” while Zuckerberg said company boards would independently review reports from outside auditors. Trump called the document “morally binding,” said he would name a new AI czar within days, and signed an executive order formally renaming artificial intelligence “super intelligence,” CNBC reported.

Musk was not in the room for Tesla alone. Since SpaceX absorbed xAI, he runs the company behind Grok and one of the largest AI training operations anywhere. On September 25, he said another 220,000 Nvidia GB300 chips would come online at Colossus 2 within a week, with more expected in November and December.

SpaceX confirms third massive compute deal at Colossus data center

 

Musk also used the trip to restate his energy ambitions. “SpaceX is aiming together with Tesla to do 200 gigawatts of solar production per year,” he said at an event in Washington. It is the same combined target he laid out that feeds directly into Terafab, the Tesla and SpaceX chip venture that will need enormous amounts of power.

The showing between Musk and Trump has come a long way, since the two had the very public split in mid 2025 after Musk opposed the “Big Beautiful Bill” and left DOGE. They reconciled at Charlie Kirk’s memorial that September, and Trump later called their relationship “good”. Since then, Musk has joined Trump’s China delegation in May and attended last week’s White House state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping.

For Tesla, that access to government official could pay dividends. As Teslarati noted in January, federal autonomy rules, NHTSA oversight and a single national standard for driverless vehicles all run through an administration Musk can more easily reach directly as Tesla works to scale Robotaxi and Cybercab beyond Texas.

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Elon Musk

Tesla Roadster’s new patent preps white-knuckle speeds, keeping it grounded

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18 hours ago

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September 29, 2026

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Credit: @BLKMDL3/Twitter

Ahead of its highly anticipated unveiling, Tesla’s upcoming Roadster received a new patent that aims to keep it grounded while enabling white-knuckle speeds.

The patent, which was granted on September 29, is titled “Electric Car Fan,” bluntly stating its design but not its purpose, which is further detailed in the text of the application. Interestingly, it comes two weeks before the Roadster event, which was delayed due to unfavorable weather on Thursday, which could cause issues, as Tesla revealed the event must be held outdoors.

The purpose is to solve a problem that is relatively unique to high-performance electric cars. Instant motor torque is useless if the tires cannot plant that force, and conventional wings and underbody tunnels generate downforce only when air is already rushing past the car. At launch, in slow corners, and under hard braking from modest speed, passive aerodynamic additions contribute essentially very little to downforce.

Tesla’s filing says that its fans can produce the downforce needed, independent of vehicle velocity, then ease off so the same hardware does not pile on drag at highway speeds, an issue that can come from excessive body modifications.

The hardware outlined in the patent is a ducted-fan package that is placed into the rear of the vehicle. An underbody inlet between the rear wheels feeds a duct that rises to a wide outlet in the diffuser. In that outlet are four axial fans, which are divided by vertical strakes. They will pull air from under the floor and press the chassis onto the pavement.

The language in the patent claims it can cut drag rather than add to it while simultaneously increasing downforce.

Tesla Roadster event requires restricted airspace, and the FAA obliges

The fans run from the high-voltage battery and a vehicle control system, so output can be modulated rather than left on as a fixed penalty.

There are additional strengths that can come from this design, like extra tire load at low speed, which can contribute to even more face-melting acceleration rates, decrease stopping distance, and sharper turn-in before a wing has air to work with. Adjustable fan speed lets the car add grip only when needed, so it can be catered to the force of a turn or acceleration.

These designs were previously used, and banned, in some competitive settings. The Brabham BT46B was banned in F1 competition for using a similar fan design and being labeled as too effective.

Tesla still lists the Roadster as having a sub-two-second 0-60 MPH time and a 250-plus-MPH top speed, and there are expectations for a SpaceX cold-gas thruster package that could not only increase acceleration but potentially cause the vehicle to hover.

It is important to note that a patent is not a production part, and packaging four fans in a rear diffuser, managing noise, and potential debris are all things Tesla must consider. With that being said, the patent being granted shows Tesla is designing the Roadster to go fast, but it is also attempting to use unique strategies to combat any issues it might have at those speeds.

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Investor's Corner

Tesla showrooms picked clean ahead of Q3 end as demand looks strong

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19 hours ago

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September 29, 2026

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Credit: @thaichiminh1907/X

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) showrooms have been picked clean ahead of the end of the third quarter of the year, as demand looks to be strong and delivery estimates for new vehicles are pushed into late 2026 and early 2027.

Tesla appears to have sold out of many of its Model 3 and Model Y trim levels in the United States, as only the Model Y RWD and Model Y All-Wheel-Drive are available for delivery before the end of the year.

Additionally, many showrooms are either completely empty or void of all but just one demo unit within the buildings themselves in an effort to bolster what could be one of Tesla’s best quarters in vehicle deliveries in recent memory.

Additionally, when I spoke to the guys at Tesla Mechanicsburg two weeks ago, when I returned the Model Y L, their third hauler of the week had just arrived, and every vehicle on it, along with every vehicle in their delivery lot, was accounted for and had a name attached to it for delivery.

Tesla saw a 25 percent increase in deliveries in Q2 compared to the same quarter the year before. The vast majority of the 480,126 units it delivered, 467,762 vehicles to be exact, were the Model 3 and Model Y.

In Q3 2025, Tesla delivered 497,099 vehicles, once again a figure that was dominated by the company’s two mass-market vehicles. Analysts have unusually wide predictions for this quarter, likely because so many firms missed the Q2 delivery figure by such a substantial margin; Wall Street predicted 408,000 cars, while Tesla delivered 480,000.

Goldman Sachs has Tesla slotted for 435,000 deliveries in Q3, while JPMorgan said it anticipates 482,000. The median guess is about 449,000 deliveries for Q3.

Interested in ordering a Tesla? Use my referral code for three free months of Full Self-Driving (Supervised) here.

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