SpaceX's Starship vehicle met with its second consecutive test flight failure on March 6th, tumbling uncontrollably in space before disintegrating and re-entering the atmosphere over the Caribbean Sea. The Starship/Super Heavy vehicle launched from the Starbase test site in South Texas at 6:30 p.m. Eastern. While the initial launch and ascent stages proceeded as planned, including the successful return of the Super Heavy booster, problems arose eight minutes into the flight.
Four of the six Raptor engines on the Starship upper stage unexpectedly shut down in rapid succession. This led to a loss of attitude control and, subsequently, communication with the spacecraft. "Prior to the end of the ascent burn, an energetic event in the aft portion of Starship resulted in the loss of several Raptor engines,” SpaceX stated in a post-flight statement. “This in turn led to a loss of attitude control and ultimately a loss of communications with Starship. Final contact with Starship came approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds after liftoff.”
Eyewitnesses in various parts of the Caribbean, ranging from the Dominican Republic to the Bahamas and even reaching Florida's Space Coast, reported seeing the vehicle explode and debris falling into the ocean. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) responded by implementing debris response areas, temporarily shutting down airspace and causing flight disruptions and delays at several Florida airports.
The FAA initiated a mishap investigation, a standard procedure following such incidents. This echoes the investigation following the previous Starship failure in January, where the vehicle lost contact about eight and a half minutes after launch and debris fell in the Caribbean. SpaceX attributed that failure to a “harmonic response several times stronger in flight than had been seen during testing” that caused leaks and fires in the vehicle’s aft section. They subsequently implemented modifications to address these issues before this latest launch attempt.
SpaceX scrubbed a launch attempt on March 3rd due to reported technical issues. Elon Musk, SpaceX Chief Executive, commented on the scrub, stating, “Too many question marks about this flight,” highlighting concerns that ultimately led to the postponement. This second consecutive Starship failure significantly impacts SpaceX's timeline for its Starlink satellite deployment and NASA's Artemis program, which relies on Starship for lunar landings.