STARBASE, Texas, May 27 (Reuters) – SpaceX’s Starship rocket launched successfully from Texas on Tuesday but lost control mid-flight, failing to meet critical test objectives and posing new challenges for Elon Musk’s ambitious Mars program. The 400-foot (122-meter) Starship, central to Musk’s vision of Mars colonization, took off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility, surpassing the points where two prior tests this year ended in explosions that scattered debris across the Caribbean and disrupted air traffic.
In this ninth full test flight since April 2023, the upper-stage spacecraft was launched atop a reused Super Heavy booster, marking a milestone in booster reusability. However, contact with the 232-foot booster was lost during descent, and it exploded before its planned controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Starship spacecraft reached suborbital space but began spinning uncontrollably about 30 minutes into the mission after a propellant leak in its main fuel tank, as Musk reported on X. This led to the cancellation of a planned deployment of eight mock Starlink satellites due to a malfunction in the rocket’s “Pez” dispenser-like mechanism.
“We’re not hitting a lot of our orbital goals today,” SpaceX broadcaster Dan Huot said during the company’s livestream.
Musk was set to give a post-flight speech on “The Road to Making Life Multiplanetary” at Starbase, but hours later, no presentation had occurred. On X, Musk highlighted the successful scheduled engine shutdown in space, a milestone achieved in prior tests, and noted that the flight yielded valuable data despite the failure. He projected a faster launch cadence of every three to four weeks for the next three flights.
Starship models flown this year feature significant upgrades, supporting SpaceX’s goal of a versatile rocket for massive satellite deployments, lunar missions, and eventual Mars travel. The company’s risk-tolerant engineering culture embraces pushing vehicles to failure to drive iterative improvements, but recent setbacks highlight persistent challenges in Starship’s costly development.
The flight aimed for a near-full Earth orbit, testing new heat shield tiles and revised steering flaps for a controlled re-entry and splashdown in the Indian Ocean. Instead, Starship broke apart, appearing as a fireball over southern Africa, delaying Musk’s aggressive development timeline for a rocket pivotal to NASA’s 2027 lunar landing plans, which face uncertainty amid Musk’s Mars-focused influence under President Donald Trump’s administration.
MISHAP INVESTIGATION
The Federal Aviation Administration approved the launch four days prior, following a nearly two-month grounding due to a mishap probe. The previous tests in January and March failed shortly after liftoff, scattering debris and disrupting flights, despite earlier successes in similar phases. The FAA expanded debris hazard zones for this launch.
These repeated failures mark a setback for Musk, SpaceX’s founder and the world’s richest individual, who has pledged to refocus on his businesses, including SpaceX, after a turbulent political stint. Musk envisions Starship eventually replacing the Falcon 9 as SpaceX’s primary commercial launch vehicle, which dominates global satellite deployments.
Reporting by Joe Skipper in Starbase, Texas, and Joey Roulette in Washington; Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Christopher Cushing.
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