During its seventh test flight, SpaceX’s Starship rocket exploded in space approximately eight minutes after launch from Texas. Debris fell over the Caribbean near Turks and Caicos.
This incident led to diverting several commercial flights to avoid potential hazards. Elon Musk identified a fuel leak as the likely cause of the explosion during the ascent phase.
Despite the explosion, SpaceX celebrated the successful landing of the Super Heavy booster. It marks a significant step in their reusable rocket technology development. The test flight also included testing new ship forward flaps, higher thrust engines, and tile adherence during ascent.
This is how Elon Musk succeeds: allowing his brilliant scientists and technicians to fail and making every problem a learning experience. It isn’t cheap, but it’s the only way if you believe in space exploration. Computer simulations alone aren’t enough.
ELON: STARSHIP 7 TEST ISSUES WERE BARELY A BUMP IN THE ROAD
“The booster flight was a success, the ship flight was 1/4 successful, hence cup being ~5/8 full.
New ship forward flaps, higher thrust engines and tile adherence on ascent were tested.
Improved heat shield… pic.twitter.com/DNzWixBHDz
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) January 17, 2025
Atmospheric reentry speed is more than twice as fast as a bullet from an assault rifle and this is the largest flying object ever made https://t.co/QmyUbeMNQ8
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 17, 2025
You can see the much higher propellant mass fraction of the new ship design by the percentage of rocket that is frosty
pic.twitter.com/uzhDOc38mV— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 17, 2025
WATCH: Successful Launch, Hot Stage Separation and Heavy Booster Catch! Even though there were great successes for this test flight of the World’s largest spacecraft, Starship 7 was lost to an unknown anomaly. An investigation in to what went wrong will be conducted. pic.twitter.com/dxCPappTMO
— John Cremeans USA (@JohnCremeansUSA) January 16, 2025
The moment the Starship 7 explodes:
FTS abort. Well done Booster 7 (and Ship 24)! That was still a big win. Launch site is fine and got a lot of first stage data!
Next up, Booster 9!https://t.co/npUj2AHByW pic.twitter.com/KRxBwsLlKq
— NSF – NASASpaceflight.com (@NASASpaceflight) April 20, 2023
THIS VIDEO SHOWS THE MOMENT STARSHIP BROKE UP!!pic.twitter.com/DIxlx7fijx
— This Brown Geek (@thisbrowngeek) January 16, 2025
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