On May 27, the ninth test lifted off at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. While the vehicle successfully reached the Earth's orbit, an apparent propellant leak caused a loss of altitude. According to ABC News, the spacecraft began spinning and mission control could no longer control it.

A SpaceX capsule launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, 1 August, as the orbiting laboratory celebrates 25 years of continuous human occupancy. Three astronauts and one cosmonaut in the US-Japanese-Russian crew rocketed from NASA's Kennedy Space Center.