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SpaceX loses contact with its Starship on 9th test flight after last 2 went down in flames

CBS News, By William Harwood, May 28, 2025

After spectacular back-to-back upper stage failures in January and March, SpaceX launched another Super Heavy-Starship rocket Tuesday on the program’s ninth test flight, but ran into fresh problems that resulted in the loss of both stages before they could carry out controlled descents to splashdown.

The Super Heavy first stage, following a deliberately steeper, more stressful descent trajectory toward splashdown near the Texas Gulf Coast, suffered a catastrophic failure at the moment its engines reignited for what would have been a relatively gentle splashdown.

But a few minutes later, a door on the side of the rocket failed to open, preventing the planned release of simulated Starlink satellites in a test of the rocket’s Pez-like deployment system.

SpaceX confirmed the stage had been lost, but given the extreme nature of the testing, the loss was not an out-of-the-blue surprise. The Starship upper stage, meanwhile, managed to make it into its planned suborbital trajectory after an apparently flawless performance from its six engines.

With that test deferred to a future flight, SpaceX engineers hoped to reignite a single Raptor engine to test its start-up capability in space. But an apparent propellant leak put the spacecraft into a slow spin that ruled out the restart and a controlled reentry and splashdown. 

The Starship has to enter at the right angle and in a precise orientation to survive reentry heating and aerodynamic “loads.” Entering in a spin doomed the Starship to a catastrophic breakup…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..As a result of the high-stress tests, SpaceX targeted a splashdown in the Gulf instead of attempting a launch pad capture where critical infrastructure could be damaged in a landing mishap.

As it turned out, that was a good decision.

Launch attempt follows two Starship breakups

Tuesday’s launch came on the heels of back-to-back Starship upper stage breakups during the two previous test flights that generated spectacular showers of flaming debris along the flight paths……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

SpaceX made changes after two catastrophic explosions

The last two Starships, launched Jan. 16 and March 6, both ended with unrelated catastrophic explosions as they neared their planned sub-orbital trajectories.

During the January flight, a propellant leak in an unpressurized “attic” above the Raptor engines led to sustained fires that eventually triggered shutdown of all but one of the spacecraft’s engines. Telemetry was lost eight minutes and 20 seconds after launch and moments later, the vehicle broke apart………………………………………………………………………………………………..https://www.cbsnews.com/news/spacex-super-heavy-starship-launch-ninth-test-flight/

May 30, 2025 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | space travel