SpaceX blames latest Starship accident on propulsion failure, new launch Tuesday

Shortly before the next test flight of its giant rocket, SpaceX has explained the reasons for the premature end of the last Starship test. During both the seventh and eighth, the last launch to date, upper stage engines failed a few minutes after separation from the booster rocket, causing the spacecraft to lose control and self-destruct. But the causes were completely different, it is now said. Meanwhile, SpaceX is already planning the next test on Tuesday and also wants to test other things on the booster.

During the eighth test flight at the beginning of March, SpaceX lost Starship in orbit, but captured the booster of the giant rocket again. Similar to the seventh test flight in January, Starship self-destructed after a fire on board. On that occasion, fuel had escaped through one or more leaks, which initially led to fires and then to the engines gradually shutting down. Shortly afterwards, communication with the giant rocket failed, and the safety system automatically activated self-destruction.

Test flights aborted for various reasons

On the surface, the eighth Starship test was the same, but that was not the case according to the space company. “Although the failure manifested at a similar point in the flight as the seventh Starship flight test, it is worth noting that the failures are significantly different,” SpaceX now writes. This is because a part of one of the central Raptor engines failed during the eighth flight, although no reason was given.

This failure led to “unintended fuel mixing and ignition”, causing this engine to fail completely. Although it was only one of six Raptor engines, shortly afterwards the other two central engines also shut down, along with one of the three outer engines. As a result, the Starship lost control. SpaceX therefore made several improvements for the next, ninth test flight. The next generation of Raptor engines, which is currently under development, is also to receive reliability improvements so that it will no longer have any of the problems found so far.

Ninth Starship test flight with new booster tests

According to SpaceX, the ninth test flight is scheduled for Tuesday, May 27, 2025. This was expected after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration approved SpaceX's next Starship launch with an extended danger zone late last week. The launch window opens at 18:30 local time, in Germany, on Wednesday night. This time, in addition to a longer flight of the upper rocket stage, other tests are planned for the booster rocket. The so-called “Super Heavy” is not to return to the Starbase and be captured there as before, which has already been successfully practiced three times.

Instead, after separation from the upper stage, the booster is to test new flight maneuvers and a different angle on re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, which could save fuel. “To maximize the safety of the launch infrastructure at Starbase, the Super Heavy Booster will conduct these experiments on a trajectory to an offshore landing point,” Elon Musk's space company said. SpaceX expects a “hard splashdown” in the Gulf of Mexico (or as SpaceX writes: Gulf of America).

Meanwhile, the upper stage of the Starship will perform the tests that previous flights did not get to due to premature failures and explosions. These include firing the Raptor engines in space, simulated Starlink satellite deployments and re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. SpaceX will also broadcast this Starship test flight live as usual, for example on X.com (formerly Twitter).

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