The launch debuted a more advanced and slightly taller version of Starship, known as Version 2 or Block 2. This version features larger propellant tanks, new avionics systems, and redesigned supply lines that flow methane and liquid oxygen propellant to the ship’s six Raptor engines. SpaceX officials did not say whether any of these changes may have caused problems with Thursday’s launch.
SpaceX officials have repeatedly and carefully set expectations for each Starship test flight. They regularly refer to the rocket as an experimental rocket, and the primary focus of the rocket’s initial demonstration missions is to collect data about the rocket’s performance. What works and what doesn’t?
Still, the results of Thursday’s test flight were clearly a disappointment for SpaceX. This was the seventh test flight of SpaceX’s giant rocket. And this is the first time Starship has failed to complete its launch sequence since its second flight in November 2023. So far, SpaceX has made steady progress, with each Starship flight achieving more milestones than the previous.
On its first flight in April 2023, the rocket lost control just over two minutes after liftoff, and the booster’s 33 engines shattered the concrete foundations beneath the launch pad with ground-shaking force. On the second flight seven months later, the rocket succeeded eight minutes before failing. ○During that mission, Starship failed at about the same point in its ascent, just before the vehicle’s six methane-fueled Raptor engines shut down.
At the time, several photos and images from the Florida Keys and Puerto Rico showed debris littering the sky after the Starship triggered a self-destruct mechanism due to an onboard fire caused by dumping liquid oxygen propellant. Ta. However, the flight took place in the morning, and there was bright sunlight along the ship’s flight path.
This time, the ship disintegrated and re-entered the atmosphere at dusk, with perfect lighting conditions highlighting the appearance of the debris cloud. Such twilight conditions may have led to a slew of videos posted on social media on Thursday.
Starship and Super Heavy descend from SpaceX’s launch site near Brownsville, Texas.
Credit: SpaceX
On the third Starship test flight in March of last year, the spacecraft reached its planned orbit and flew halfway around the Earth before dying in the intense heat of atmospheric reentry. In June, the fourth test flight ended with a controlled splashdown of the rocket’s Super Heavy booster in the Gulf of Mexico and Starship’s splashdown in the Indian Ocean.
In October, SpaceX captured the first super-heavy booster with a mechanical arm on a launch pad, demonstrating the company’s bold approach to rocket recovery and reuse. On this fifth test flight, SpaceX upgraded the ship’s heat shield to better handle high temperatures during atmospheric re-entry, and the craft again successfully landed on target in the Indian Ocean.
Most recently, Flight 6 on November 19 demonstrated the ship’s ability to reignite a Raptor engine for the first time in space, again ending in a bullseye splashdown. However, SpaceX called off attempts to reattach the booster to Starbase due to problems with sensors in the launch pad’s tower.
On Flight 7, SpaceX wanted to test further changes to the heat shield that protects Starship from reentry temperatures of up to 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit (1,430 degrees Celsius). Musk identified heat shielding as one of the most difficult challenges still facing the program. For SpaceX to achieve its goal of allowing ships to be quickly reused with minimal or no refurbishment between flights, the heat shield must be resilient and durable. .
