In a bittersweet launch, SpaceX was able to successfully launch its seventh Starship rocket from Starbase, Texas. The flight ended with a little bit of déjà vu, with the ship’s upper stage running into an anomaly just before ascent was over.
Winds were a big problem at the start of Thursday’s launch window. This caused a 37-minute delay to liftoff before SpaceX even began fueling the rocket.
After that delay, the count went as smoothly as we would expect a SpaceX launch to go. No issues were found with the rocket, no range violations, and they nailed the weather timing. At 4:37 P.M. CT, all of Starship’s engines were operating as they should, and they were given the GO to ramp up to full power to take Starship on to the stars.
The booster performed flawlessly, ascending the rocket to altitude where the ship performed its engine startup and hot staging. As the ship continued its ascent, the booster flipped around and performed a short boost-back burn to return to the launch site.
In what was another mind-blowing experience, it is incredible that this sort of technology is even possible: SpaceX successfully caught another Starship booster using the catch arms on the launch tower. SpaceX now has two flight-proven Starship boosters that we could see a return of later this year.
Starship’s failed ascent
As the ship continued ascending, no signs led to anything going wrong until it reached the end of its engine burn. A few minutes before the planned engine shutdown, the engines of the ship began to shut down one by one over the span of a minute.
While the booster is powered by 33 Raptor engines, the ship has six: three gimbaling sea-level engines, the same as the booster, and three fixed vacuum-optimized Raptors.
Starship Flight 2 also suffered an inflight anomaly shortly before engine shutdown as well. That was caused by a leak towards the rear of the vehicle that eventually met up with a source of ignition. The difference was Flight 2’s failure took place instantly; Flight 7’s was a gradual issue as altitude and speed telemetry continued to stream in as the engines were shutting down.
Unconfirmed videos of potential debris streaking through the sky have already emerged from the Turks and Caicos Islands. However the timing, multiple angles, and location line up with it being Starship’s breakup and reentry.
While the chances are low of any debris making it to land due to its speed and altitude, the danger of space debris from a vehicle the size of Starship is still very much real.
“Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly during its ascent burn,” the company shared on X. “Teams will continue to review data from today’s flight test to better understand root cause. With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve Starship’s reliability.”
While there hasn’t been an announcement just yet, a formal mishap will likely be called by the FAA, which will require its own investigation and report before another launch can take place.
This was, however, a flight data gathering mission and the flight of a brand new Starship upper stage. While it seemed like SpaceX was expecting more issues during reentry, as they purposely removed tiles to stress test the heat shield, any outcome is expected in flight test campaigns.
What’s next for Starship? SpaceX already has hardware in various stages of assembly for the next couple of flights. However, given the earlier-than-expected conclusion of today’s launch, any goal of a launch in two weeks or an orbital mission is likely off.
