Following a successful launch, Starship separated from the Super Heavy booster rocket which returned to the launch pad and was captured by the launch tower for the third time. But during the upper stage’s ascent burn, “an energetic event in the aft portion of Starship resulted in the loss of several Raptor engines,” according to a statement SpaceX shared to its website last night. That caused Starship to lose attitude control and spin uncontrollably before exploding. SpaceX lost communications with the craft nine minutes and 30 seconds after the launch.
Full details about that “energetic event” aren’t yet known, but as with Starship’s last test flight, a self-destruct could have been potentially triggered as part of a pre-planned contingency response.
Following the explosion, the Federal Aviation Administration “issued ground stops for flights departing for Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and Palm Beach airports for more than an hour before resuming normal operations at around 8PM ET,” according to Reuters. Operations at Tampa International Airport weren’t affected by the falling debris, but two flights headed to Miami were diverted to Tampa, while a flight headed to San Juan, Puerto Rico, had to return to TIA, according to KTLA.
Footage of Starship’s explosion, captured from Florida, was shared to X by Trevor Mahlmann. In the 30-second clip, a bright flash is followed by what appears to be an expanding, spiraling cloud in the dusk sky that eventually disperses and fades away.
As with the SpaceX incident in January, several people shared videos to social media of Starship’s burning debris field from the ground, boats, and even planes as it streaked across the sky over the Bahamas.
With the two most recent Starship test flights ending in a “rapid unscheduled disassembly” as SpaceX describes the explosions, there could be even more eyes and cameras trained at the skies when the ninth test flight takes place. But depending on how long it takes to sort out what happened yesterday — and what’s needed to prevent it from happening again — it could be a while before the next launch takes place.
