SpaceX Starship megarocket upper stage lost again during 8th test flight; booster catch is successful
Starship successfully launched on Thursday for its eighth suborbital flight test in Boca Chica Beach, Texas. (Credit: SpaceX)
After a failed mission in January, SpaceX on Thursday launched its eighth suborbital flight test of its fully integrated Starship megarocket, a combination of the ship’s upper stage (S34) and the Super Heavy booster (B15), at Starbase in Boca Chica Beach, Texas.
Unfortunately, history repeated itself when Starship’s upper stage made it into space only to start spinning uncontrollably before losing contact and breaking apart, sending debris cascading back to earth early Thursday evening.
One of the goals of the flight was to catch the Super Heavy booster using the chopsticks on the launch tower, which was completed successfully.
“During Starship’s ascent burn, the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly and contact was lost. Our team immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses,” SpaceX said in a statement. “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 CEO Elon Musk has not commented following the launch, as of 7:45 p.m.
Starship’s upper stage rocket is seen breaking apart in the sky Thursday after its eighth test launch in Texas. (Credit: @jamesbuchanan27/TMX)
SpaceX on Thursday launched its eighth suborbital flight test of its Starship megarocket at Starbase in Boca Chica Beach, Texas. (SpaceX / Fox News)
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SpaceX announcers who were streaming during the launch said the controllers lost contact with the ship, noting a debris response plan was in effect and air traffic control was “keeping public safe.”
“We fly to learn,” announcers said before the broadcast ended.
The upper stage was supposed to coast in space for about 40 minutes before performing a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean.
A ground stop was issued for multiple Florida airports, including Miami International, due to space launch debris, according to the Federal Aviation Commission.
As of 7:45 p.m., Miami remained grounded and Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International reported a departure delay due to the debris.
SpaceX on Thursday launched its eighth suborbital flight test of its Starship megarocket at Starbase in Boca Chica Beach, Texas. (SpaceX / Fox News)
After completing a January investigation into the similar loss of Starship early on its seventh flight test, several hardware and operational changes were made to increase the reliability of the upper stage, according to the company.
During the January test, all but one of Starship’s engines executed controlled shut-down sequences, leading to a loss of communication with the ship.
A pre-coordinated response plan developed by SpaceX, the FAA, and ATO (air traffic control) went into effect, ensuring no significant impacts on people, marine species or water quality.
SpaceX reached out immediately to the government of Turks and Caicos and worked alongside the United Kingdom to coordinate recovery and cleanup efforts.
Starship’s upper stage rocket is seen breaking apart in the Bahamas sky Thursday after its eighth test launch in Texas. (@jamesbuchanan27/TMX / Fox News)
Thursday’s flight followed the same suborbital trajectory as previous missions, but targeted objectives not reached in the previous test, including Starship’s first payload deployment and multiple reentry experiments geared towards returning the upper stage to the launch site for catch.
During the flight test, Starship was slated to deploy four Starlink simulators, similar in size to next-generation Starlink satellites. They were expected to disappear upon entry. A relight of a single Raptor engine while in space was also planned.
It is unclear if those operations were completed prior to the Ship upper stage losing communication.
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The test also included several experiments focused on ensuring the Starship’s upper stage could return to the launch site.
Some of the experiments included: removing a “significant number” of tiles to stress-test vulnerable areas; multiple metallic tile options to identify which will protect the ship during reentry; non-structural versions of Starship’s catch fittings to test the fittings’ thermal performance; and smoothing and tapering a section of the tile line to address hot spots observed during reentry on the sixth flight test.
SpaceX on Thursday launched its eighth suborbital flight test of its Starship megarocket at Starbase in Boca Chica Beach, Texas. (SpaceX / Fox News)
The Super Heavy booster featured upgraded avionics, including a more powerful flight computer, improved power and network distribution, and integrated smart batteries.
The company noted “distinct vehicle and pad criteria” needed to be met prior to the return and catch of the Super Heavy booster.
To return, the ship needed healthy systems on the booster and tower, and a final manual command from the mission’s flight director.
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“If this command is not sent prior to the completion of the boostback burn, or if automated health checks show unacceptable conditions with Super Heavy or the tower, the booster will default to a trajectory for a soft splashdown in the Gulf of America,” according to a statement from the company.
“We accept no compromises when it comes to ensuring the safety of the public and our team, and booster return will only take place if conditions are right,” the company wrote.
Starship’s upper stage rocket is seen breaking apart in the Bahamas sky Thursday after its eighth test launch in Texas. (@jamesbuchanan27/TMX / Fox News)
The returning booster slowed from supersonic speeds, resulting in audible sonic booms in the area around the landing zone.
“Generally, the only impact to those in the surrounding area of a sonic boom is the brief thunder-like noise with variables like weather and distance from the return site determining the magnitude experienced by observers,” according to the company.
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“Developmental testing by definition is unpredictable,” SpaceX wrote. “But by putting flight hardware in a flight environment as frequently as possible, we’re able to quickly learn and execute design changes as we seek to bring Starship online as a fully and rapidly reusable vehicle.”
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SpaceX Super Heavy booster successfully caught, upper ship reportedly explodes
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SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft explodes midflight for a second time, disrupting Florida air traffic
Follow CNN’s live coverage of the SpaceX Starship flight test.
SpaceX launched the eighth integrated test flight of its gargantuan Starship megarocket system Thursday night. But rather than achieving objectives that fell short during its previous fiery test in January, the eighth flight also ended with a loss of the Starship vehicle.
While the company was successful in capturing a booster from the rocket as it returned to the launch tower, the Starship spacecraft was lost, resulting in a fiery explosion and disruptions to air traffic over Florida.
The uncrewed mission lifted off at 5:30 p.m. CT (6:30 p.m. ET) from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in South Texas. The company had stood down from a Monday launch attempt due to “too many question marks,” according to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, that led to a scrub.
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The Starship spacecraft, also referred to as the upper stage, rode atop the 232-foot-tall (71-meter-tall) Super Heavy rocket booster.
Super Heavy separated from the upper stage after about 2 ½ minutes of firing.
Then, the booster set itself up for a successful landing within the “chopstick” arms of “Mechazilla,” or SpaceX’s launch tower, near Brownsville, Texas. The feat means that SpaceX has successfully caught a Super Heavy booster using the chopsticks three times now.
Meanwhile, the Starship spacecraft fired its own engines, setting up to fly on a suborbital trajectory for about an hour. Starship was only about 20 seconds away from the end of its ascent burn when SpaceX lost contact with the ship. Several of the engines visibly cut out during the livestream.
“Once you lose enough of those center engines, you’re going to lose attitude control,” said SpaceX’s Dan Huot. “And so we did see the ship start to go into a spin, and at this point, we have lost contact with the ship.”
The loss of signal occurred at roughly the same point during this mission as with Flight 7, when Starship exploded over populated islands in Turks and Caicos, littering the islands with debris and striking a car.
It has not been confirmed where exactly the vehicle exploded during today’s mission. But the explosion was visible from parts of Florida and occurred over the Caribbean, according to reports from residents of those locations shared with CNN.
The Federal Aviation Administration halted flights into Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, and Orlando airports for “falling space debris” until 8 p.m. ET.
The FAA also kept flights from departing from Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport and Miami International Airport. Flights leaving those airports are still delayed on average by 30 and 45 minutes, respectively.
“We’ve got a lot of measures in place, like debris response areas, where we coordinate very closely with air traffic control,” Huot said. “We have a lot of measures put (in place) before we ever launch a rocket to make sure that we’re keeping the public safe. Those worked last time and they’re actively in work right now.”
The company shared an update on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter, after the explosion.
“During Starship’s ascent burn, the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly and contact was lost. Our team immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses,” SpaceX posted. “We will review the data from today’s flight test to better understand root cause. As always, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will offer additional lessons to improve Starship’s reliability.”
Meanwhile, the FAA is requiring SpaceX to perform a mishap investigation into the loss of the Starship vehicle, according to a statement released by the agency.
“A mishap investigation is designed to enhance public safety, determine the root cause of the event, and identify corrective actions to avoid it from happening again,” according to the statement. “The FAA will be involved in every step of the SpaceX-led mishap investigation process and must approve SpaceX’s final report, including any corrective actions. A return to flight is based on the FAA determining that any system, process, or procedure related to the mishap does not affect public safety.”
A Turks and Caicos government account shared an advisory to the public regarding the incident on Instagram.
“We wish to advise the public that this evening’s SpaceX launch appears to have broken up in flight,” the advisory read. “We are in contact with the US FAA, SpaceX and UK agency leads to confirm the position. Post incident protocols have been engaged. The National Security Secretariat will continue to keep the public apprised as we work to ensure the safety and security of our Islands.”
Thursday’s flight test was intended to put Starship through its paces so mission teams could zero in on weak points. Engineers have removed a large number of heat shield tiles from Starship to test vulnerable areas across the spacecraft. The black hexagonal tiles are designed to protect the vehicle as it experiences temperatures exceeding 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit (1,427 degrees Celsius) when reentering Earth’s atmosphere.
The company also added new tile options, including a metallic one that offers active cooling, to see which materials can best protect the spacecraft.
The failed test flight in January spurred SpaceX to make other upgrades and changes, including new vents and a “purge system” designed to prevent a fire, according to the company.
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SpaceX said what mission teams learned prompted them to alter lines that feed fuel to some of Starship’s engines and tweak propellant temperatures. Another change adjusted the vehicle’s “operating thrust target” — or how much power SpaceX aims for the engines to generate during flight. Starship also stands 6.5 feet (2 meters) taller than before with about 25% more propellant volume, which could enable the spacecraft to fly longer missions in the future.
Starship’s forward flaps, which replace the need for wings and reduce fuel needed for landing, are now smaller and shifted toward the top of the vehicle away from the heat shield. This design upgrade aims to reduce the flaps’ exposure to heating during reentry.
Meanwhile, the Super Heavy booster has some upgrades of its own, including a more powerful flight computer.
About 17 ½ minutes after lifting off, Starship was planning to attempt to deploy a batch of mock Starlink satellites for the first time. Like the spacecraft, the demo satellites weren’t intended to reach orbit.
SpaceX also shared on Monday that the company is expanding Starship operations to Florida, building a new facility called Gigabay next to its current HangarX location at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The expansion will enable SpaceX to increase the amount of Starship vehicles it’s able to build and fly, according to the company.
Thursday’s launch occured seven weeks after an explosive mishap prematurely ended Starship’s seventh test flight, raining debris over the islands of Turks and Caicos on January 16.
The Federal Aviation Administration — which licenses commercial rocket launches — is overseeing an investigation into the incident, but the agency gave SpaceX the green light February 28 to launch Flight 8. The agency noted that the probe into the Flight 7 mishap was ongoing, but the FAA determined SpaceX had “met all safety, environmental and other licensing requirements for the suborbital test flight,” according to a statement.
The seventh test flight exploded less than 10 minutes into flight.
The company believes a leak occurred in the rear section of the vehicle near a tank containing superchilled liquid oxygen, or a form of rocket propellant. The leak likely led to an increase in pressure, and a fire broke out, according to a statement released by SpaceX. Vibrations several times stronger than previously seen during testing may have increased stress on the propulsion system and served as the root cause, according to the company.
Built-in safety systems triggered automatically in response. Such systems typically include software that blows up malfunctioning vehicles to prevent large pieces of debris from hitting the ground.
While no property damage or injuries were reported, one vehicle was struck on the island of South Caicos, and debris caused brief flight disruptions as air traffic controllers rushed to reroute planes away from the site of the explosion.
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However, residents of the archipelago of Turks and Caicos told CNN they are still finding debris from the spacecraft littering beaches and roadways. The local government worked with SpaceX to craft a debris recovery plan. However, the contents of the plan have not been made public and it’s not clear who is paying for the cleanup effort.
Neither SpaceX nor the Turks and Caicos government responded to requests for comment.
CNN’s Pete Muntean contributed to this report.
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Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated when SpaceX stood down on an earlier attempt at Flight 8.
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Video showed the upper stage of the most powerful rocket ever built spinning out of control in space, a repeat of an unsuccessful test flight in January that led to debris falling over the Caribbean.
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