ELON Musk’s SpaceX lost contact with its mammoth Starship rocket during an eighth test flight on Thursday.
The 400-foot-tall Starship system rocketed off the launch pad at SpaceX’s Starbase site near Brownsville, Texas, at 6:30 p.m.
But a little over eight minutes in — roughly the same timing as the mishap in January — several engines appeared to cut off as the upper-stage Starship vehicle was still accelerating into space.
Live video showed the craft spinning before all communication was lost.
"Unfortunately, this happened last time too, so we've got some practice now," SpaceX spokesman Dan Huot said on the live stream.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued ground stops at Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and Orlando airports because of "space launch debris" until at least 8pm ET.
In a statement on X, SpaceX said Starship broke apart — what it described as “a rapid unscheduled disassembly” — during its ascent.
“Our team immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses," SpaceX wrote.
“We will review the data from today’s flight test to better understand root cause. As always, success comes from what we learn.”
The failure is another setback for SpaceX's whirlwind Starship development programme. Musk, SpaceX's CEO, has pushed for swift advances in the rocket's development in 2025.
The Starship failure in January ended eight minutes into flight when the rocket exploded in space, raining debris over Caribbean islands.
For now, Starship remains grounded—its future dependent on SpaceX’s ability to solve these critical issues. – March 7, 2025
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