After spectacular Back to back failed in the previous phase exist January In March, SpaceX launched another super heavy rocket on Tuesday during the program’s ninth test flight, but encountered new problems, both phases preventing the controlled descent splash.
The plane has been in the airplane for more than 40 minutes, SpaceX said it has lost contact with the Starship and the capsule may have been destroyed when trying to re-enter.
SpaceX released to X said: “It seems like the flight test isn’t exciting enough, and Starship has undergone a quick external disassembly.”
After the super heavy first phase, there was a deliberately steeper, more stressful descent trajectory toward a splashed lateral descent trajectory, and its engine has suffered a catastrophic failure as its engine was reignited as it would have been a relatively light splash.
SpaceX’s Mega Rocket Starship took a test flight from Starbucks, Texas on Tuesday, May 27, 2025. /Conquer: Eric Gay / AP
SpaceX confirmed the stage was lost, but given the extreme nature of the test, the loss was not a blue surprise. Meanwhile, the upper stage of the Starship managed to get it into planned orbital trajectory, after the performance of its six engines was clearly flawless.
But a few minutes later, a door on the rocket side could not be opened, preventing the planned deployment of the simulated star-striped satellite.
As the test delays future flights, SpaceX engineers hope to reignite a single Raptor engine to test its startup capabilities in space. However, the obvious propellant leak turned the spacecraft into a slow spin, eliminating controlled re-entry and splash. Given the lack of control, a complete splash seems unlikely.
SpaceX’s next-generation Starship spacecraft’s uptake on its super booster was launched on May 27, 2025 at the company launch pad in Starbridge, Texas, USA.
The giant rocket launch, known as the Integrated Flight Test 9, was shocked on the Texas coast at 7:37 pm EDT from SpaceX’s massive Boca Chica, Texas’s Boca Chica, Manufacturing and Flight Facilities (Starbase).
This mission is the first time using the first phase of overweight that has been flew before, which flew back to the giant capture Mechanical arm The launch tower during the seventh test flight of the program in January.
For the program’s latest launch, overweight, powered by 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines, generated up to 16 million pounds of thrust, following the same flight plan as previous missions, driving the upper stage of the Starship towards the lower trajectory of the Florida Straits toward the East.
The 160-foot starship is equipped with six Raptors, separated from the lift-back booster, about two and a half minutes, heading to the orbital track to take it to the planned vertical splash of the southern Indian ocean.
Meanwhile, overweight people used another method to circumvent the development site to save propellant. It is also programmed to drop much steeper than usual to learn more about the stress that can be safely withstand.
“The booster will attempt to fly at a higher attack angle during the descent,” SpaceX said on its website. “By increasing atmospheric resistance on the vehicle, a higher attack angle may result in a lower drop rate, which in turn requires less propellant to burn the initial landing.”
“Getting realistic data on how boosters can control their flight at this higher attack angle will help improve the performance of future vehicles, including the next generation of super heavy duty,” SpaceX said.
Due to high stress testing, SpaceX’s goal is to splash out in the bay rather than attempting to capture launch plate capture, where critical infrastructure can be damaged in the misfortune of landing.
It turned out to be a good decision.
The Starship is expected to follow the same flight plan as the previous two missions, both of which fail before reaching the planned trajectory. This time, the ship crossed the previous obstacle, but the propellant leak prevented the controlled re-entry.
Launch attempt follows two starship breakups
In the first two test flights, Tuesday’s launch was after a phase breakup on a back-to-back starship, producing spectacular burning debris along the flight path.
Since then, SpaceX engineers have conducted extensive testing and implemented multiple upgrades and improvements to minimize the chances of similar failures. Federal Aviation Administration, the administration Supervise two failed investigationsSpaceX was allowed to continue IFT-9 last week after completing the IFT-8 review.
“The FAA conducted a comprehensive safety review of the unfortunate accident on SpaceX StarX flight 8 and determined that the company has satisfactorily resolved the cause of the unfortunate incident, so that Starship vehicles can return to the flight,” the agency said in a statement. “The FAA will verify that SpaceX implements all corrective measures.”
In the previous two failures, Commercial airline transportation The detention of the Florida Strait and its surroundings in the debris to be confirmed is no longer a threat. For the ninth flight, the length of the aircraft’s hazardous area expanded from about 1,000 miles to about 1,840 miles, and SpaceX was required to launch the rocket during off-peak air travel.
The Moon and Mars plan
Super heavy rockets are crucial to NASA’s landing plan Astronauts on the Moon In the next few years, Musk finally sent humanity to Mars.
NASA plans to use a variant of the Starship Upper stage as the Lunar Lander in the agency’s Artemis program. NASA hopes to use its own rocket and crew capsules to lunar orbit, where SpaceX Lander will wait to transport them along the ground to the ground.
The artist’s impression of the interstellar spacecraft variants on the moon’s surface. / Credit: NASA/SPACEX
Trump administration wants to cancel NASA’s space launch system rockets and Orion crew capsules, leaving The future of Artemis planas currently envisioned, there is a question. Musk believes that the United States should deliver a lunar mission, which he calls “interference” and instead heads directly to Mars.
Regardless of the matter, no matter what the target, the super heavy rocket is expected to play an important role in future deep space exploration. However, multiple successful test flights will be required to demonstrate the safety and reliability required for astronauts and passengers heading to the Moon, Mars or later.
Changes after two catastrophic explosions in SpaceX
The last two starships launched January 16 and March 6Both ended with irrelevant catastrophic explosions as they approached the planned orbital trajectory.
During a January flight, a propellant leak in an unpressed “loft” above the Raptor engine caused a persistent fire, which eventually triggered the shutdown of everyone except one of the spacecraft’s engines. After launching, the remote control was eight minutes and 20 seconds, and the telemetry was lost. After a moment, the vehicle broke down.
“The most likely root cause of ship losses was determined as several times the flight of harmonic responses, which was seen during the test, which resulted in increased pressure on the hardware in the propulsion system,” Spacex said on its website. “The subsequent propellant leak exceeded ventilation capacity in the attic area of the ship and led to a persistent fire.”
After extensive ground testing, SpaceX made changes to propellant feedlots and thrust levels and installed new vents and a new nitrogen cleaning system in the attic to reduce the potential of firepower.
The fixes appear to work properly during the eighth test flight of the Starship in March, but the upper stage suffered a catastrophic failure again. This time, SpaceX said on its website that the spacecraft suffered “a hardware failure in one of the high-rise Raptor engines, resulting in unintentional propellant mixing and ignition.”
To address this issue, the upper Raptor now has a new nitrogen cleaning system, improved propellant drainage system, and tighter joints in key areas. SpaceX is also developing an improved Raptor engine that will eliminate several failure modes.
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