SpaceX has received regulatory clearance for another Starship test flight, following a two-month investigation into a booster failure that occurred during the vehicle's May launch. The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed Monday that the company had identified the root causes of the Super Heavy booster's malfunction and implemented corrective measures, paving the way for a launch as early as Thursday, July 16. Main Developments SpaceX announced over the weekend that the next Starship flight could occur this Thursday, marking the second-ever launch of the third-generation V3 Starship and the first time the vehicle will carry operational V3 Starlink satellites. Twenty of these new satellites are slated for deployment, six of which will be equipped with cameras to photograph the Starship exterior during flight. The FAA's investigation into the May 22 failure determined that the most probable root causes were heat effects on propulsion system components during ascent and erroneous engine alarm system settings. SpaceX separately stated that slight differences in engine startup on the ship caused the booster to turn 90 degrees in the wrong direction at separation. Read also: Why LAPD's exit from Flock Safety signals a surveillance tipping point SpaceX has since modified the engine startup sequence to allow the booster to flip in the desired direction more reliably, and the booster itself has been altered to improve re-light reliability. Changes have also been made to the Starship's engine alarm and abort systems to reduce the likelihood of a similar failure. The company added that several hardware and operational modifications were made to prevent the upper stage from losing one of its three vacuum-optimized Raptor engines, which happened during the May flight. Background The May 22 test flight was largely successful: the Super Heavy booster lifted the 407-foot rocket into space, and the upper stage separated and deployed 20 satellite simulators along with two modified Starlinks that recorded footage of the exterior. The booster, however, was supposed to return to Earth and perform a simulated landing in the Gulf of Mexico but instead plummeted into the water after its engines failed to re-ignite properly. This upcoming flight will be SpaceX's second test of the Starship system overall and its first as a publicly traded company. SpaceX completed its IPO on June 12, listing on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange and becoming one of the ten most valuable companies in the world while raising nearly $86 billion — a record for any IPO. The V3 versions of both Starship and Starlink are central to SpaceX's long-term strategy. Starlink was the only profitable segment of the business leading up to the IPO, and Starship's full reusability is essential for the company's ambitions, which include space-based data centers and interplanetary travel. Why It Matters Each Starship test flight carries immense financial and reputational weight for SpaceX, especially now that the company is public and under greater scrutiny from investors who may be less tolerant of the "fly, fail, fix" approach that CEO Elon Musk has championed. The May flight demonstrated that the upper stage can successfully deploy payloads and simulate landings — milestones that had previously eluded SpaceX — but the booster failure underscored the technical challenges still ahead. The V3 Starlink satellites are designed to increase network capacity and user speeds, connecting with the existing constellation via high-capacity lasers. They are intended to burn up in the atmosphere roughly 20 minutes after deployment, according to SpaceX. Successfully launching operational Starlink satellites on Starship would validate the vehicle's utility for SpaceX's core revenue-generating business. What's Next If the launch proceeds on July 16, SpaceX will attempt to deploy 20 V3 Starlink satellites and test the modified booster re-entry and landing sequence. The company has not disclosed a specific launch window, but regulatory approvals are now in place. A failure could prompt another grounding and delay the Starship program's already ambitious timeline, while a success would mark a significant step toward operational use of the world's largest rocket.