WATCH AGAIN: SpaceX launches 7th Starship test flight, loses spacecraft after booster catch

ORLANDO, Fla. – Taller, packed with more propellant, and equipped with its first-ever payload, SpaceX’s reusable megarocket lifted off for its seventh flight test from Boca Chica, Texas Thursday.

Moments after the launch, the Super Heavy booster was caught back at Starbase.

However, the rocket itself was destroyed.

The spacecraft was supposed to fly across the Gulf of Mexico on a near loop around the world. Data from the spacecraft indicated it reached an altitude of 90 miles and a velocity of 13,245 mph.

SpaceX says the craft’s six engines appeared to shut down, and contact was lost just 8 1/2 minutes into the flight. Videos on social media showed a cascade of debris from the spacecraft.

“Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly during its ascent burn. Teams will continue to review data from today’s flight test to better understand root cause. With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve Starship’s reliability,” SpaceX posted on X.com later in the evening.

The company unveiled a long list of upgrades to its powerful moon rocket this month, with the goal of adding “additional vehicle performance and the ability to fly longer missions,” according to a post on its website.

Starship is designed to eventually launch cargo and large crews on long-duration, interplanetary flights, along with the development of a moon base.

SpaceX is currently building a facility capable of launching and capturing Starship at Kennedy Space Center’s LC-39A.

A Next-Generation Starship

Since the spacecraft’s debut flight in April 2023, engineers have made various changes the vehicle’s Super Heavy booster, engines and rocket-catching apparatus.

With each success and failure, teams have used mission data to tweak aspects of the vehicle’s performance.

Starship “2″ has recently undergone several improvements to its upper stage.

According to SpaceX, those include:

• Forward flaps were reduced in size and shifted towards the vehicle tip and away from the heat shield.
• Propulsion system was redesigned.
• Avionics, including flight computer, were upgraded.
• New heat shield features next-generation tiles, some of which were removed for stress-testing.

Burnt Flaps

The forward flaps on Starhip act similarly to a tailplane, reducing the fuel needed for reentry and allowing landing at destinations outside Earth.

The forward flaps face intense heat exposure during reentry and previous missions have pushed the forward flaps to the ultimate test, resulting in damage and RUD (rapid unscheduled disassembly) on several occasions.

By simplifying the flaps’ underlying mechanisms, shrinking them and moving them closer to the vehicle tip, SpaceX says they’ll be more capable of surviving the rigors of maximum entry dynamic pressure.

More Lift

A redesign of Starship’s propulsion system brings a 25% increase in propellant volume, providing additional capability for long-duration missions.

Engineers also added vacuum jacketing to feedlines, along with a new fuel feedline system for the vehicle’s signature Raptor vacuum engines.

These upgrades help prevent propellant from boiling off during launch and reentry.

Starship’s propulsion avionics module controlling vehicle valves and sensors also saw improvements, SpaceX says.

More Computing Power

“The vehicle’s avionics underwent a complete redesign, adding additional capability and redundancy for increasingly complex missions like propellant transfer and ship return to launch site,” SpaceX says on its mission’s webpage.

The company is introducing a more powerful flight computer and antennas that unite Starlink and other communication functions into each unit.

Starlink, paired with the ship’s 30+ cameras, will provide insight into how the hardware is holding up throughout the flight. This will likely also give viewers on the SpaceX livestream a higher-definition video feed.

Special Deployment

Unlike previous test flights, Starship 2 will have company in its payload bay.

After reaching orbit, Starship will deploy 10 dummy satellites that are similar in size and weight to Starlink satellites.

The fake satellites will then following Starship back to Earth and splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

Thermal Protection

Starship’s heat shield also received a makeover ahead of Flight Test 7.

SpaceX is trying out it’s latest tile technology and adding an extra layer of protection. Some areas of the heat shield, however, were removed to see how vulnerable areas of the vehicle affect the flight.

New metallic tiles with special cooling technology have been added to the heat shield to test their capabilities as well.

Sticking the Landing

SpaceX has one successful “catch” of its 232-foot-tall Super Heavy booster at its Texas launch site. The unprecedented accomplishment in October 2024 proved Starship as a reusable vehicle.

Landing the massive rocket between two mechanical arms, sometimes called “chopsticks,” required precise boostback and landing burns.

To assist teams during landing, SpaceX added protections to the sensors on the launch and catch tower. The company says these sensors were damaged during the most recent flight test, forcing engineers to divert the booster offshore.

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