SpaceX conducted its eighth test flight of the Starship rocket on Thursday, achieving success with the “catch” of the Super Heavy booster but facing an unfortunate setback when the Starship broke apart less than ten minutes into its flight. The test, launched from SpaceX’s Starbase facility near Boca Chica Beach in Texas, faced significant technical difficulties.
Engineers from SpaceX reported that the 400-foot-tall Starship lost altitude control after several engines failed 20 seconds before the end of the ascent burn. Following the incident, SpaceX issued a statement on X, acknowledging that the vehicle experienced a “rapid unscheduled disassembly” during the ascent, and contact was lost shortly after. They assured the public that they would review the flight data to identify the root cause of the failure.
“We will review the data from today’s flight test to better understand the root cause. As always, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will offer additional lessons to improve Starship’s reliability,” SpaceX’s statement said.
The flight was witnessed by nearly 1 million viewers on a live stream. The ship appeared to go out of control before the cameras cut out completely. Starship was expected to splash down in the Indian Ocean, but footage on social media later showed flaming debris over the Atlantic Ocean, with people in Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas observing the wreckage in the night sky.
In addition to the explosion, the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily grounded flights at several Florida airports due to “space launch debris” from the failed mission. SpaceX lost contact with Starship 8 before it could deploy its test satellites, which were supposed to occur at the 17-minute mark of the flight.
Despite the failure of Starship 8, SpaceX had successfully caught the Super Heavy booster earlier in the flight. The booster, equipped with 33 Raptor engines, was returned to the Texas launchpad, where SpaceX’s “chopsticks” mechanical arms successfully caught the reusable propellant, marking the third such successful catch.
This test flight had already been delayed earlier in the week after a Super Heavy booster issue was flagged 23 minutes before the scheduled launch, leading to a flight hold. Although the launch had been postponed due to the unresolved issue, SpaceX pressed on with the test, which ultimately faced a catastrophic failure.