SpaceX loses contact with its Starship on 9th test flight after last 2 went down in flames

CBS News

28-05-2025

After spectacular back-to-back upper stage failures in January and March, SpaceX launched another Super Heavy-Starship rocket Tuesday on the program's ninth test flight, but ran into fresh problems that resulted in the loss of both stages before they could carry out controlled descents to splashdown.
The Super Heavy first stage, following a deliberately steeper, more stressful descent trajectory toward splashdown near the Texas Gulf Coast, suffered a catastrophic failure at the moment its engines reignited for what would have been a relatively gentle splashdown.
SpaceX's mega rocket Starship makes a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Tuesday, May 27, 2025.
Eric Gay / AP
SpaceX confirmed the stage had been lost, but given the extreme nature of the testing, the loss was not an out-of-the-blue surprise. The Starship upper stage, meanwhile, managed to make it into its planned suborbital trajectory after an apparently flawless performance from its six engines.
But a few minutes later, a door on the side of the rocket failed to open, preventing the planned release of simulated Starlink satellites in a test of the rocket's Pez-like deployment system.
With that test deferred to a future flight, SpaceX engineers hoped to reignite a single Raptor engine to test its start-up capability in space. But an apparent propellant leak put the spacecraft into a slow spin that ruled out the restart and a controlled reentry and splashdown.
The Starship has to enter at the right angle and in a precise orientation to survive reentry heating and aerodynamic "loads." Entering in a spin doomed the Starship to a catastrophic breakup.
"Starship made it to the scheduled ship engine cutoff, so big improvement over last flight!" SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk wrote on X. "Also, no significant loss of heat shield tiles during ascent. Leaks caused loss of main tank pressure during the coast and re-entry phase. Lot of good data to review. Launch cadence for next 3 flights will be faster, at approximately 1 every 3 to 4 weeks."
He added that the Super Heavy launch cadence for the next three flights will be faster, at approximately one per month or less, assuming, of course, engineers reviewing telemetry can quickly pin down what went wrong and implement fixes to correct the problems.
SpaceX's next-generation Starship spacecraft atop its Super Heavy booster is launched on its ninth test at the company's launch pad in Starbase, Texas, U.S., May 27, 2025.
Joe Skipper / REUTERS
The huge rocket's launching, known as Integrated Flight Test 9, got underway with a ground-shaking liftoff at 7:37 p.m. EDT from SpaceX's sprawling Boca Chica, Texas, manufacturing and flight facility — Starbase — on the Texas coast.
The mission featured the first use of a previously flown Super Heavy first stage, which flew itself back to capture by giant mechanical arms on the launch tower during the program's seventh test flight in January.
For the program's latest launch, the Super Heavy, powered by 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines generating up to 16 million pounds of thrust, followed the same ascent flight plan as previous missions, propelling the Starship upper stage out of the thick lower atmosphere on an easterly trajectory toward the Straits of Florida.
Equipped with six Raptors of its own, the 160-foot-long Starship separated from its booster about two and a half minutes after liftoff, heading for a suborbital trajectory carrying it toward a planned vertical splashdown in the southern Indian Ocean.
The Super Heavy, meanwhile, used a different method for flipping around for the trip back to the launch site in a bid to save propellants. It was also programmed to fly a much steeper descent than usual to learn more about the thermal and aerodynamic stresses it can safely endure.
"The booster will attempt to fly at a higher angle of attack during its descent," SpaceX said on its website. "By increasing the amount of atmospheric drag on the vehicle, a higher angle of attack can result in a lower descent speed which in turn requires less propellant for the initial landing burn."
"Getting real-world data on how the booster is able to control its flight at this higher angle of attack will contribute to improved performance on future vehicles, including the next generation of Super Heavy," SpaceX said.
As a result of the high-stress tests, SpaceX targeted a splashdown in the Gulf instead of attempting a launch pad capture where critical infrastructure could be damaged in a landing mishap.
As it turned out, that was a good decision.
Launch attempt follows two Starship breakups
Tuesday's launch came on the heels of back-to-back Starship upper stage breakups during the two previous test flights that generated spectacular showers of flaming debris along the flight paths.
Since then, SpaceX engineers have carried out extensive testing and implemented multiple upgrades and improvements to minimize the chances for similar failures. The Federal Aviation Administration, which oversaw both failure investigations, gave SpaceX permission to proceed with IFT-9 last week after wrapping up the IFT-8 review.
"The FAA conducted a comprehensive safety review of the SpaceX Starship Flight 8 mishap and determined that the company has satisfactorily addressed the causes of the mishap, and therefore, the Starship vehicle can return to flight," the agency said in a statement. "The FAA will verify SpaceX implements all corrective actions."
In both of the previous failures, commercial airline traffic in and around the Straits of Florida was held up pending confirmation falling debris was no longer a threat. For the ninth flight, the length of the Aircraft Hazard Area was expanded from about 1,000 statute miles to around 1,840 miles and SpaceX was required to launch the rocket during non-peak air travel periods.
Plans for the moon and Mars
The Super Heavy-Starship rocket is critical to NASA's plans to land astronauts on the moon in the next few years and to Musk's plans to eventually send humans to Mars.
NASA plans to use a variant of the Starship upper stage as a lunar lander in the agency's Artemis program. NASA wants to use its own rocket and crew capsule to ferry astronauts to lunar orbit where the SpaceX lander will be waiting to carry them down to the surface.
An artist's impression of a Starship variant on the surface of the moon.
NASA/SpaceX
The Trump administration wants to cancel NASA's Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule, leaving the future of the Artemis program, as it's currently envisioned, in doubt. For his part, Musk has argued the United States should pass up moon missions, which he called a "distraction," and instead head directly to Mars.
In any case, the Super Heavy-Starship rocket is expected to play a major role in future deep space exploration, regardless of the target. But multiple successful test flights will be needed to demonstrate the safety and reliability needed for astronauts and passengers heading to the moon, Mars or beyond.
SpaceX made changes after two catastrophic explosions
The last two Starships, launched Jan. 16 and March 6, both ended with unrelated catastrophic explosions as they neared their planned sub-orbital trajectories.
During the January flight, a propellant leak in an unpressurized "attic" above the Raptor engines led to sustained fires that eventually triggered shutdown of all but one of the spacecraft's engines. Telemetry was lost eight minutes and 20 seconds after launch and moments later, the vehicle broke apart.
"The most probable root cause for the loss of ship was identified as a harmonic response several times stronger in flight than had been seen during testing, which led to increased stress on hardware in the propulsion system," SpaceX said on its website. "The subsequent propellant leaks exceeded the venting capability of the ship's attic area and resulted in sustained fires."
After extensive ground tests, SpaceX made changes to propellant feedlines, and thrust levels and installed additional vents and a new nitrogen purge system in the attic to reduce the potential for fire.
Those fixes appeared to work as expected during the Starship's eighth test flight in March, but the upper stage again suffered a catastrophic failure. This time around, the Starship suffered a "hardware failure in one of the upper stage Raptor engines that resulted in inadvertent propellant mixing and ignition," SpaceX said on its website.
To fix the problem, upper stage Raptors now feature a new nitrogen purge system, improvements to the propellant drain system and tighter joints in key areas. SpaceX is also developing an improved Raptor engine that will eliminate several failure modes.