“Another Starship Lost! SpaceX Faces Major Setback in Latest Launch”
Seven weeks after an explosion scattered debris from a Starship launch vehicle into the Atlantic, SpaceX launched its most powerful rocket again on Thursday—only to lose contact with the Starship minutes into the mission.
The 400-foot rocket, powered by a Super Heavy booster with 33 Raptor engines, lifted off successfully at 6:30 p.m. ET from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Texas. However, around nine minutes into the flight, the vehicle spun out of control as multiple engines failed. Mission control then lost communication with the craft.
No astronauts were aboard, and SpaceX cut its live video feed without confirming the ship’s location or possible debris fallout.
In a post on X, SpaceX stated the vehicle underwent a “rapid unscheduled disassembly” and promised to analyze the flight data to identify the cause. “Success comes from what we learn,” the company said, emphasizing that the mission will help improve Starship’s reliability.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced that SpaceX must conduct an investigation into the latest Starship mishap.
Following the launch, temporary ground stops were issued at Orlando, Palm Beach, Miami, and Fort Lauderdale airports due to concerns over falling debris. Normal operations later resumed, but social media users shared images and videos of possible rocket debris streaking across the sky in Miami and the Turks and Caicos.
Despite losing the Starship, the mission achieved a major milestone—the successful return and catch of the Super Heavy booster. The massive first-stage booster executed a controlled descent, slowing from supersonic speeds before being caught by the launch tower’s robotic arms. This marks the third time SpaceX has successfully pulled off this complex maneuver.
Thursday’s flight aimed to push Starship’s capabilities beyond previous attempts. The mission was supposed to test Starship’s first payload deployment and multiple reentry experiments, moving SpaceX closer to bringing the upper stage back to the launch site for a future catch. If successful, this would make Starship a fully reusable spacecraft, capable of vertical takeoff and landing on any hard surface.
Unlike the partially reusable Falcon 9, Starship is designed to be fully reusable and capable of carrying both crew and cargo on deep-space missions. It can also transport larger payloads than any current launch vehicle, supporting future lunar and Mars missions. SpaceX envisions Starship eventually carrying up to 100 people on long-duration interplanetary flights.
This is not the first time SpaceX has lost a Starship. In January, another spacecraft was lost when mission control lost all communication eight and a half minutes after liftoff, with debris later seen over Turks and Caicos. Investigations suggested stronger-than-expected vibrations caused propellant leaks, leading to a fire. That failure prompted flight restrictions in Florida over concerns about falling debris.
For this latest test, SpaceX made several key upgrades, including redesigned forward flaps to reduce reentry heating exposure, a 25% increase in propellant capacity for longer missions, and a fully revamped avionics system for improved reliability. Engineers also removed some protective heat tiles to stress-test vulnerable parts of Starship while testing new metallic tiles designed to withstand extreme reentry heat.