In a dramatic and ultimately ill-fated test flight, SpaceX launched its eighth Starship rocket from the company&rsquo;s Starbase facility in South Texas on Thursday evening, only to lose the vehicle minutes later as it spun out of control and exploded high in the sky.
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The towering 403-foot (123-meter) Starship vehicle lifted off at 6:30 p.m. EST (2330 GMT) in what was meant to be a demonstration of improved flight stability, payload deployment, and controlled re-entry. However, just minutes into the mission, the upper stage of the spacecraft, known simply as &ldquo;Ship,&rdquo; experienced a catastrophic failure.
Mission Timeline and Early Successes
The launch began with a spectacular ignition of the Super Heavy booster&rsquo;s 33 Raptor engines, propelling the massive rocket skyward with an earth-shaking roar. Approximately seven minutes after liftoff, the first-stage booster executed an ambitious and increasingly perfected manoeuvre&mdash;returning to Starbase for an aerial recovery using the launch tower&rsquo;s &ldquo;chopstick&rdquo; arms. This marked the third successful catch of its kind, a major milestone in SpaceX&rsquo;s quest for rapid rocket reusability.
Meanwhile, the Starship upper stage continued its flight, streaking southeast over the Atlantic Ocean. The mission plan called for the vehicle to deploy four mock Starlink satellites approximately 17.5 minutes after launch before executing a controlled descent into the Indian Ocean, near Western Australia, 50 minutes post-liftoff. However, the spacecraft never reached that phase.
Failure Strikes at High Altitude
Trouble began as Starship reached nearly 90 miles (145 kilometres) in altitude. Several of its six Raptor engines began shutting down prematurely, disrupting the spacecraft&rsquo;s trajectory. Moments later, the vehicle entered an uncontrollable spin, cutting off all communications with SpaceX&rsquo;s mission control.
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Though the exact cause of the failure remains unclear, SpaceX engineers suspect the vehicle&rsquo;s flight control systems struggled to compensate for the loss of propulsion, leading to a loss of stability. Shortly after contact was lost&mdash;approximately nine minutes into the mission&mdash;spectators across the Bahamas and Florida reported seeing a bright, fiery display as Starship disintegrated in the upper atmosphere.
A Familiar Setback, But Progress Continues
The outcome of Flight 8 closely mirrored that of its predecessor, Starship Flight 7, which suffered a similar fate on January 16. In both cases, SpaceX successfully demonstrated booster recovery, but the upper stage was lost before completing its mission objectives.
SpaceX remains undeterred. &ldquo;Obviously a lot to go through, a lot to dig through, and we're going to go right at it,&rdquo; said SpaceX commentator Dan Huot in a live broadcast after the explosion. &ldquo;We have some more to learn about this vehicle.&rdquo;
Despite the setback, the company&rsquo;s iterative approach to spaceflight&mdash;learning from failures to refine designs&mdash;has been key to its rapid development. Starship is crucial to SpaceX&rsquo;s long-term ambitions, including human missions to the Moon under NASA&rsquo;s Artemis program and, eventually, crewed flights to Mars.
With engineers already combing through data, the next Starship test flight is likely not far off. Whether SpaceX can overcome the persistent challenges plaguing the upper stage remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: the push for interplanetary travel is far from over.

SpaceX's latest Starship test ends in failure as upper stage tumbles and breaks apart mid-flight

Starship Flight 8 Explodes Minutes After Liftoff

SpaceX's latest Starship test ends in failure as upper stage tumbles and breaks apart mid-flight

March 7, 2025 | 08:17 IST