SpaceX’s Most Recent Mega Rocket Launch Destroyed a Starship

On its seventh test flight, SpaceX fired its massive Super Heavy-Starship super rocket Thursday. The first stage booster was successfully “caught” back at the firing stand, but the company lost its new-generation Starship upper stage spacecraft, which reportedly broke apart en route to orbit. Federal officials said that flight traffic out of Miami, Florida, was momentarily delayed by falling debris from the damaged Starship.

Unexpected engine failures or shutdowns caused the Starship’s telemetry to freeze eight minutes and 27 seconds after launch. Later, SpaceX used a humorous depiction in a post on X to confirm the ship’s destruction:

“Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly during its ascent burn. Teams will continue to review data from today’s flight test to better understand root cause. With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve Starship’s reliability.”

“We (lost) all communications with the ship,” a SpaceX launch commentator explained of the Starship. “That is essentially telling us we had an anomaly with the upper stage.” A moment later, he confirmed: “We did lose the upper stage.”

The Federal Aviation Administration also reported that airline traffic at Miami International and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International airports was delayed up to an hour due to what it described as a “rocket launch anomaly.”

The FAA in a statement explained it “briefly slowed and diverted aircraft around the area where space vehicle debris was falling.” It said normal operations had resumed.

“The FAA is aware an anomaly occurred during the SpaceX Starship Flight 7 mission that launched from Boca Chica, Texas, on Jan. 16,” the agency explained in a follow-up statement, adding that it is “assessing the operation.”

Social media users shared footage of the Starship’s debris falling near the Caribbean’s Turks and Caicos Islands, which CBS News confirmed.

SpaceX’s billionaire owner Elon Musk later hinted at a possible cause, posting to his X platform: “Preliminary indication is that we had an oxygen/fuel leak in the cavity above the ship engine firewall that was large enough to build pressure in excess of the vent capacity. Apart from obviously double-checking for leaks, we will add fire suppression to that volume and probably increase vent area.”

In a news release, SpaceX explained that “initial data indicates a fire developed in the aft section of the ship, leading to a rapid unscheduled disassembly with debris falling into the Atlantic Ocean within the predefined hazard areas.”

At 5:37 p.m. Eastern Time, the enormous rocket launched from SpaceX’s production and flight test site on the Gulf Coast in Boca Chica, Texas, with 33 methane-burning Raptor engines producing up to 16 million pounds of thrust.

The booster lifted away from its launch pad and arced beautifully over to the east on top of a long jet of burning exhaust that could be seen for dozens of kilometres around, gulping 40,000 pounds of fuel per second.

On the strength of its six Raptor engines, the Starship continued its ascent to space after the Super Heavy dissipated two minutes and forty seconds after liftoff.

In the meantime, the booster turned over, restarted a number of engines to go in the opposite direction, and returned to Boca Chica, where the special mechanical arms on the rocket’s launch gantry were ready and open.

The Super Heavy re-started its engines and swung to the pad, plummeting tail first back to Earth. It then sat directly between the chopsticks, which closed smoothly to catch its prey in midair.

Last October’s successful first such grab left thousands of cheering locals and visitors in awe. However, due to launch damage to sensors on the tower that were required to assist in guiding the descending rocket into position, the Super Heavy utilised for the subsequent such mission, which took place a month later, was diverted to a Gulf of Mexico splashdown.

SpaceX engineers are hopeful that they will soon be recovering Super Heavy boosters with the same regularity they have shown with the company’s workhorse Falcon 9 rockets, a crucial component of SpaceX’s drive to reduce launch costs. New sensors with stronger shielding were installed to eliminate such damage.

As part of the reusability theme, one of the 33 Raptor engines of the Super Heavy was used in a prior test flight to show that it could fly many missions.

What SpaceX referred to as a “new generation” Starship was equipped with the majority of the enhancements that were tested on Thursday. The booster “landed,” and the upper stage entered space two minutes later.

However, flight controllers were unaware of what might have transpired during the last phases of the ascent due to the loss of data.

The Starships don’t try to enter orbit during their first test missions. Rather, they circle the earth half-way and land belly-first in a raging conflagration of air resistance, then turn nose-up for a rocket-powered, tail-first splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

Major test goals for Thursday’s trip included deploying 10 dummy Starlink mockups to test a novel satellite distribution mechanism that functions similarly to a Pez candy dispenser and restarting a Raptor engine in orbit. Once the rocket is functioning, thousands of Starlinks should be launched by starships.

Other improvements included modified fuel feed lines, a 25% increase in propellant volume to boost performance, a smaller stabilising fin that was moved to lessen its exposure to re-entry heating, and an enhanced propulsion avionics system.

A more potent flight computer, new antennas that integrate signals from GPS and Starlink navigation satellites, “smart batteries” and power units to power two dozen high-voltage actuators, and updated navigation sensors are all part of the avionics system’s revamp.

More than 30 cameras have been fitted by SpaceX to the aircraft in order to provide direct views of vital systems. Real-time data and video are streamed to the ground via working Starlink satellites.

SpaceX has not yet attempted to capture a returning Starship or, for that matter, a Falcon 9 upper stage, despite the fact that the spacecraft is meant to be completely reusable.

But in order to better understand how they would react to re-entry heating, Thursday’s test flight included many experiments to test various heat shield enhancements, such as metallic tiles and one with active cooling, in addition to mock Starship capture fittings.

“This new year will be transformational for Starship,” SpaceX explained on its website, “with the goal of bringing reuse of the entire system online and flying increasingly ambitious missions as we iterate towards being able to send humans and cargo to Earth orbit, the moon, and Mars.”

The success of NASA’s Artemis moon program depends on getting the Super Heavy-Starship into regular flight. In order to transport humans to the lunar surface by 2027, NASA is funding SpaceX to create a version of the Starship upper stage.

A series of other Starship “tankers” must meet, dock, and self-refuel the moon-bound spacecraft before it can blast out of Earth orbit and travel for deep space. This is the first step in the process for SpaceX to send a Starship to the moon.

On NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, astronauts will take off in an Orion capsule. They will then meet up with the Starship in orbit around the moon to descend to the surface.

According to NASA’s contract, astronauts must successfully complete one unpiloted lunar landing test flight before being authorised to ride one down to the surface. When that would be feasible will be decided by the continuing test program.