Starship, Elon Musk's massive spacecraft that will one day take people to Mars, failed its latest test flight on Thursday when its top stage exploded, raining debris and interrupting air traffic from Florida to Pennsylvania.
It was the second straight test flight of the most powerful rocket, where the upper-stage spaceship failed. Once multiple engines failed, it spun out of control and lost touch with mission control.
Users posting photos and videos on X from the Florida coast showed the spacecraft breaking up. The falling debris affected flights at Miami, Orlando, Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and Philadelphia International Airport.
Starship has the largest rocket system ever. It is over 100 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty on its pedestal at 403 feet.
33 SpaceX Raptor engines power the Super Heavy launcher, the most ever. At full power, the engines will launch Starship with 16 million pounds of thrust.
The upper section, called Starship or Ship, resembles a beautiful stainless steel rocket from 1950s science fiction movies. This top stage will orbit and possibly launch people to the moon or Mars.
SpaceX's Starbase in southern Texas near Brownsville launched the rocket shortly after 6:30 p.m. Eastern on Thursday.
As in the previous test flight, Starship's massive booster returned to the launchpad. Several upper-stage engines malfunctioned in the last 30 seconds before shutting down. Tumbling Earth and space were shown on the rocket video till it stopped.
SpaceX stated on its website, “Before the end of the ascent burn, an energetic event in the aft portion of Starship resulted in the loss of several Raptor engines. This caused attitude control and Starship communications to fail.
SpaceX reported that the spacecraft stopped communicating at 9:30 after liftoff.
The corporation promptly coordinated with safety officials “to implement pre-planned contingency responses.”
After the spacecraft broke up, the FAA ordered airport ground stoppages. Each case listed “space launch debris” as the cause.
Some airlines stated the event had little impact Thursday night.
“We had some minor impacts on our South Florida operation, but things are getting back on track,” Southwest Airlines stated.
The F.A.A. grounded Starship while SpaceX investigated Thursday's incident.
Eighth rocket test flight. Last January's test flight began well with all 33 booster engines hoisting the rocket into space. After the booster split, the second-stage spacecraft's six engines fired, propelling it upward.
But something went awry, and air traffic over the Caribbean was diverted and delayed due to falling debris, some of which hit the Turks and Caicos Islands.
SpaceX proved the rocket's core concept works and that the Starship can return to Earth almost intact in the first six tests. SpaceX hopes to enhance “more or less” to “reliably” and demonstrate other capabilities this year. The F.A.A. may approve 25 flights this year.
Trying to avoid conflicts of interest with Musk and SpaceX.
Last month, the government hired three SpaceX employees to temporarily improve its air traffic control system and other equipment.
Ethics letters to the three employees state that they “will not receive access to systems” at the F.A.A.'s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, which governs SpaceX.
SpaceX found that greater-than-expected shaking from the rocket vibrating like an organ pipe likely killed the previous Starship. Movements generated propellant leaks that ignited.
The business found that the self-destruct device exploded the rocket minutes later.
The business said it altered propellant feed pipes to the engines to decrease oscillations during the seventh flight. To prevent leaks, SpaceX changed engine propellant temperatures and thrust.
For this flight, SpaceX added extra vents to the rocket's attic and a propellant purging system to reduce fires.
After investigating SpaceX, the F.A.A. granted a launch authorization for the eighth flight last week.
Neuroscientist and amateur astronomer Scott Ferguson, 43, set up a telescope in a parking area near his Sarasota, Fla., home to watch the trip.
A big cloud appeared through his telescope at 6:40 p.m. A few seconds later, he saw a massive section of the craft's body “surrounded by metallic debris that looked like stars twinkling all around it.”
A few minutes later, Mr. Ferguson heard a huge noise that reminded him of sonic booms he heard growing up in Titusville, Fla., near NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Booms continued 10 minutes later.
SpaceX has faced issues with other rockets besides Starship. Some of its Falcon 9 rockets launched from Florida and California every few days have had issues.
A Falcon 9 upper stage failed to fire its engine during a February launch, causing the rocket's wreckage to splash down in the water. It stayed in orbit. The stage fell gradually due to air resistance and re-entered the atmosphere 18 days later above Europe. Rocket fragments fell in Poland, but no one was hurt.
SpaceX had another issue Sunday night when a Falcon 9 booster landed on an Atlantic Ocean ship but fell over.
The business reported that “an off-nominal fire in the aft end of the rocket damaged one of the booster's landing legs which resulted in it tipping over.”
NASA plans to use Starship to transport astronauts from lunar orbit to the moon's surface during its 2027 Artemis III mission.
That mission might be postponed or canceled if the Trump administration revamps the moon program or focuses on Mars.
SpaceX must prove Starship's reliability before a human mission.
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