SpaceX’s ‘Days Since Starship Exploded’ counter made it to 48. It’s back to zero again now

SpaceX’s latest attempt to fly its Starship has again ended in a rapid unscheduled disassembly.

The Thursday mission, the eighth flight of the vehicle NASA has contracted to use for 2027 demo of a crewed Moon landing, aimed to nail an hour-long transatmospheric journey to the Indian Ocean that the previous launch could not achieve.

SpaceX attributed that mission’s failure to “harmonic response” several times stronger than the launcher-for-hire company had ever seen in testing. Those forces caused a leak in the propulsion system, causing a fire, and an explosion that saw chunks of Starship rain down over the Atlantic.

SpaceX pledged to upgrade the problematic parts but whatever changes it made didn’t stop Flight 8 from ending with the same explosive outcome.

As on Flight 7, the Super Heavy booster did its job, and Starship fired up its engines. But before the end of its ascent burn, SpaceX reported “an energetic event in the aft portion of Starship resulted in the loss of several Raptor engines.”

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Rockets tend to do badly if they unexpectedly lose power. Starship is no exception and appears to have exploded as contact with the craft was lost nine-and-a-half minutes into the mission. Media reports suggest debris was seen leaving fiery trails over the Atlantic, and flights were delayed up and down the eastern seaboard as airlines made sure not to have their planes taken out by a piece of falling Starship.

The Super Heavy Booster fared better, returning to SpaceX’s Texas launch tower and slowing itself so it could be caught by mechanical “chopsticks”. SpaceX has now caught the last three Super Heavy launches, which should make it easier to recycle the giant rockets and therefore reduce the cost of future launches.

Blowing up Starships can’t be cheap. Oh what irony it would be if SpaceX’s boss Elon Musk needs to renegotiation the company’s NASA contract to reflect increased costs, given his side hustle as leader of the public-expenditure-slashing Department of Government Efficiency.

SpaceX appeared unfussed by the failed mission.

“With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve Starship’s reliability,” the company Xeeted. “We will conduct a thorough investigation, in coordination with the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration], and implement corrective actions to make improvements on future Starship flight tests.” ®