SpaceX has suffered another setback with its Starship rocket after a test flight ended in an explosion. The upper-stage vehicle lost communication about eight minutes into the flight, shortly after launching from the company’s SpaceX Starbase in Brownsville, Texas, at 6:30 p.m. ET for its eighth test.
During the flight, multiple engines appeared to shut down while the spacecraft was still accelerating. Live footage showed the rocket spinning in space before contact was lost. “I think it’s pretty obvious we’re not going to continue the rest of the mission today,” said SpaceX communications manager Dan Huot during the live webcast.
Following the incident, ground stops were initiated at airports across Florida due to “space launch debris” impacting areas including Fort Lauderdale and Miami. Social media videos depicted what appeared to be smoke and fiery streaks of debris in the sky, with those viewing from locations such as Boynton Beach, Jamaica, and Turks and Caicos sharing footage online.
SpaceX characterized the event as a “rapid unscheduled disassembly” during ascent and stated they are coordinating with safety officials to implement contingency plans. They also indicated plans to analyze data from the flight to identify the root cause of the issues.
Despite the latest failure, the test flight achieved one significant milestone: the Super Heavy booster successfully returned to its launch site and was caught by the tower’s robotic arms, marking the third time SpaceX has performed this impressive maneuver, crucial for their goal of making the Starship system fully reusable.
While this test flight was uncrewed, SpaceX officials have noted that they plan to conduct hundreds of tests before transporting any astronauts. The next-generation Starship is expected to be pivotal in NASA’s Artemis III mission, which aims to land astronauts on the Moon in 2027, and could also be used for future Mars missions.
This incident follows a previous test on January 16, where communication was lost with the upper stage about eight minutes in, resulting in an explosion over the Caribbean. Following that incident, an investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was launched, which has since cleared Starship for the latest test flight, although the investigation remains ongoing.
