SpaceX’s advanced Starship rocket has completed its ninth uncrewed test flight, launching from Texas and surpassing the progress of its last two missions before ending in another explosive failure.
The spacecraft, made up of the Starship upper vehicle and the massive Super Heavy booster, lifted off at approximately 7:36pm local time on Tuesday from SpaceX’s Starbase facility along the Gulf Coast. The company later confirmed that the vehicle underwent a “rapid unscheduled disassembly”—a term it uses for an unexpected explosion.
“Teams will continue reviewing data and preparing for the next test,” SpaceX stated online. Elon Musk described the mission as a “big improvement” compared to previous attempts.
The live broadcast showed the 123-meter rocket powering into the sky, with its Raptor engines generating a fiery launch cloud. For the first time, SpaceX used a previously flown Super Heavy booster, marking a key step toward reusability.
Roughly nine minutes after takeoff, the booster separated as planned and began its return to Earth. However, contact was lost, and it broke apart over the Gulf of Mexico. The Starship upper stage continued into space, hitting its intended suborbital trajectory.
The flight soon encountered problems. Fuel leaks appeared to cause the spacecraft to spin out of control, and Starship lost attitude control during its descent. Additionally, the payload doors didn’t open as intended, failing to release the test satellites onboard.
“Not looking great with a lot of our on-orbit objectives for today,” noted SpaceX commentator Dan Huot.
Starship was scheduled to complete the 90-minute mission with a controlled descent and splashdown in the Indian Ocean. But after losing stability, the vehicle was no longer properly aligned for re-entry.
“Our chances of making it all the way down are pretty slim,” a commentator said during the livestream.
The test followed a recent license approval by federal regulators, issued just four days prior after concluding an investigation into past mishaps that had paused the program for nearly two months.
Starship’s January and March test flights also ended in failure shortly after launch, scattering debris across the Caribbean and disrupting regional air traffic.
To address risks, the FAA expanded the debris hazard zones for this latest flight. These repeated setbacks have slowed progress on the ambitious Starship project, which Elon Musk has been pushing to fast-track this year.
Musk, who founded SpaceX in 2002 and is the world’s richest person, sees Starship as the key to his long-term vision: a versatile, next-generation spacecraft that can carry humans and cargo to the Moon later this decade—and eventually to Mars.
