Starbase Magic: My Trip for Starship Launch 9 and Why It Still Gives Me Chills

Posted on by The Star Queen

Header photo: Starship stacked on the orbital launch mount at Starbase on May 26, 2025, the day before Flight 9.

📅 Quick timeline: May 26, 2025 (the day before), Flight 9 lifted off on Tuesday, May 27 at 6:36 p.m. CT (7:36 p.m. ET), and May 28 (the day after).

Back in May 2025, I made the pilgrimage so many space fans dream of: a trip to Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, to watch Starship Integrated Flight Test 9 in person.

If you’ve never been to a launch viewing in South Texas, let me paint the picture for you.

The Day Before: Meeting Starship Up Close

The drive down Highway 4 feels like entering another world—flat, wide-open land, the Gulf breeze, and then… there it is. Starship towering on the pad, gleaming in the sun like something out of a sci-fi movie that somehow became real.

I got to Starbase early, the day before the launch (because of course I did).

Quick note: every photo in this post was taken at Starbase on the day before the launch (May 26) or the day after (May 28). None of them are of the launch itself. More on that below. 😅

Stacked Starship and Super Heavy booster on the orbital launch mount beside the launch tower at Starbase under a partly cloudy blue sky
May 26, at Starbase, the day before launch: the full stack on the orbital launch mount, with the launch tower beside it. Look for: the ship’s dark nose at the top, the tower’s steel lattice and the “chopstick” arms at its upper left, and the weathered pad structures at the bottom.
Hand-painted wooden sign reading Live in OUR Tomorrow Today? STARBASE Boca Chica, TX with Destination Mars, painted rockets across a blue sky, and a Starship stack and tower visible behind it
May 26, at Starbase: my favorite roadside find, a hand-painted sign that says “Live in OUR Tomorrow Today? STARBASE Boca Chica, TX.” Look for: the “Destination Mars” planet at left, a trail of tiny painted Starships arcing across the sky, the artist’s signature at the bottom right, and a real Starship stack peeking over the top. 💛
Black WELCOME TO STARBASE information plaque with humorous notes about chupacabra, no droids or drones, no tours, no gift shop and no public restrooms
May 26, at Starbase: the “Welcome to Starbase” plaque made me laugh out loud. Look for: the chupacabra warning, “Starbase does not serve droids,” no public tours, no gift shop, and my favorite line: “Yikes, this is awkward, but public restrooms are not available at Starbase. You might want to start driving home now.” 😄

Launch Day: The Road Closed

Launch day didn’t go the way I pictured it. The road to the Starbase viewing area was closed the day of launch and we couldn’t get there.

So we watched from Port Isabel, Texas, a town across the Laguna Madre from Starbase (roughly six miles away across the water), along with other folks who gathered to watch.

The countdown starts. T-minus 10… 9… 8…

Thirty-three Raptors ignite.

The ground shook, and the roar came as a rumble.

Liftoff.

For those few minutes, everything else disappears. It’s just you, the rocket, and the sky it’s claiming.

What Flight 9 Gave Us

Flight 9 was… well, Starship. Beautiful, chaotic, historic. It was the first time SpaceX re-flew a Super Heavy booster (Booster 14-2, which first flew on Flight 7 in January 2025), with Ship 35 on top. We got the hot staging, the booster’s flip maneuver, and the boostback burn—moments that made us all hold our breath. And yes, there was rapid unscheduled disassembly (RUD). The booster, which was trying out a steeper, more aggressive descent for science, was lost over the Gulf as it started its landing burn, about six minutes in. The ship made it to space, but a leak and a loss of attitude control kept it from deploying its Starlink simulators, and it was lost over the Indian Ocean about 46 minutes into the flight. But that’s Starship too. Every “boom” is data. Every test brings us closer to Mars, to point-to-point Earth travel, to a future where space isn’t just for astronauts.

The FAA required a mishap investigation for the ship and closed it on August 15, 2025, after accepting SpaceX’s findings (a failed part in the fuel-tank pressurization system) and its fixes, which cleared the way for Flight 10.

Watching it all unfold from Port Isabel, I didn’t feel disappointment. I felt awe.

Because this isn’t failure. This is the messy, magnificent process of making the impossible routine.

The Day After: Rain, Flooded Flats and a Quiet Tower

On May 28 the weather turned rainy and gray, and the tidal flats were flooded. It was a very different Starbase from the sunny one I met the day before, but still magical.

Rainy view across flooded tidal flats of a Super Heavy booster and a Starship upper stage standing side by side next to a tall dark building with diagonal bracing
May 28, at Starbase, the day after launch: a rainy view across the flooded flats. Look for: a Super Heavy booster and a Starship upper stage standing side by side on the left, a tall dark building with diagonal bracing on the right, and a wet road in the foreground. 🌧️
Empty launch tower with its chopstick arms at different heights against heavy gray clouds at Starbase
May 28, at Starbase: the launch tower, empty now, under heavy clouds the day after Flight 9. Look for: the two “chopstick” arms at different heights, and the steel lattice climbing into the gray sky. The pad was quiet, but the tower looked ready for whatever comes next. 🚀

I’m still riding that post-launch high that lasts for days.

Mission Accomplished (and a Tip)

Mission accomplished: I got to see Starship up close the day before it flew, watched it launch from Port Isabel, visited the quiet tower the day after, and I’m still buzzing. 🌟

If you ever get the chance to see a Starship test in person—do it. Bring sunscreen, bug spray, and a full heart. And learn from me: the road closed on launch day, so have a backup viewing plan. Port Isabel, across the water, worked for us.

The sky looks different after you’ve felt a rocket shake the earth.

Now that I’m back home on the Space Coast, I’ve been following another giant SpaceX build. 🏗️ From Boca Chica to the Space Coast: follow the Gigabay build at KSC

What’s your dream launch to see live? Drop it below—I’d love to hear your stories too.

Until next flight… keep looking up.

— The Star Queen 🌟🚀

Sources

All photos by The Star Queen, taken at Starbase on May 26 and May 28, 2025. Photos are not official and are not affiliated with SpaceX.

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