Musk loses Starship
March 7, 2025
SpaceX enjoyed partial success for its Starship test #8 on the evening of March 6th. The rocket’s booster (first) stage performed flawlessly and enjoyed a perfect return to Earth and being captured by the sites ‘chopsticks’.
However, the upper stage Starship exploded mid-flight. The SpaceX mishap halted some flights from Florida’s busiest airports for “falling space debris”. FAA-mandated air traffic disruptions were cleared shortly after, but flights leaving those airports are still delayed by around 45 minutes.
The uncrewed SpaceX Starship test flight lifted off at 5:30pm CT from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in South Texas.
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 and observers said the craft seemed to be tumbling.
“Once you lose enough of those center engines, you’re going to lose attitude control,” said Dan Huot, SpaceX communications manager. “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 explosion was visible from parts of Florida and occurred over the Caribbean, according to reports from residents.
“Prior to the end of the ascent burn, an energetic event in the aft portion of Starship resulted in the loss of several Raptor engines,” said a statement from SpaceX. “This in turn led to a loss of attitude control and ultimately a loss of communications with Starship. Final contact with Starship came approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds after liftoff.”
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