SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft, designed to transport astronauts to the moon and beyond, experienced another failure during its second test flight. The uncrewed spacecraft lifted off from the company’s Starbase launch site near Boca Chica in Texas, reaching an altitude of approximately 55 miles. However, the rocket’s Super Heavy first stage booster exploded over the Gulf of Mexico after detaching from the core stage. Shortly afterward, mission control lost contact with the vehicle.
The test mission lasted around eight minutes, and a camera view showed an explosion that suggested the vehicle failed at that time. The rocket’s altitude at the time of the explosion was 91 miles. This launch was the second attempt to fly Starship with the Super Heavy rocket booster, following a failed attempt in April.
The ignition of Starship’s 33 Raptor engines caused a shockwave at the launch facilities before the rocket system began to ascend toward space. At an altitude of approximately 43 miles, the two stages separated, with the Super Heavy booster intended to plunge into the Gulf of Mexico while the core Starship booster continued to space using its own engines. However, the Super Heavy booster exploded, and SpaceX has not provided details about the fate of the core stage.
SpaceX stated on social media that the core Starship stage’s engines fired for several minutes on its way to space. The company sees this test as an opportunity to learn and improve Starship’s reliability for future missions. The objective of this test was to launch Starship into space, just short of reaching orbit, and then have it splash down off the coast of Hawaii. SpaceX aims to develop a large, versatile spacecraft capable of sending people and cargo to the moon and eventually Mars.
Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, envisions Starship replacing the Falcon 9 rocket as the company’s primary launch vehicle. NASA, SpaceX’s primary customer, is relying on Starship to play a central role in its Artemis program, which aims to send astronauts back to the moon. However, this recent failure shows that there are still obstacles to overcome before achieving these ambitious goals.
During the previous test flight in April, the spacecraft experienced malfunctions with some of the Super Heavy’s engines, and the lower-stage booster failed to separate from the upper-stage Starship as planned. SpaceX is now faced with analyzing the data from this failed test to improve the reliability of future missions.
