SpaceX’s giant rocket, Starship, will launch for a test flight from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, on Thursday, January 16, 2025.
Eric Gay | AP
SpaceX launched the seventh test flight of its Starship rocket on Thursday, but lost contact with the rocket’s upper stage as it continued into space.
The company’s webcast showed that Starship stopped transmitting data about nine minutes after launch.
“We certainly lost the ship,” said Kate Tice, SpaceX’s senior manager of quality systems engineering.
SpaceX said in a post to “Initial data indicates a fire occurred near the rear end of Starship, destroying the vehicle,” the company said in a later statement.
After the rocket lost contact, social media users posted photos and videos of what appeared to be a fireball in the sky near the Caribbean islands. Starship’s launch trajectory pointed due east from Texas, meaning the fireball was likely debris from the rocket that broke up and re-entered the atmosphere.
SpaceX said in a statement that pieces of Starship debris fell into the Atlantic Ocean “within a pre-defined danger zone.” The company will work with the Federal Aviation Administration to establish these potential risk areas prior to launch.
The FAA warned pilots of a “hazardous area of ​​falling Starship debris,” according to the notice. Multiple planes, including passenger and cargo planes, appeared to be changing course and changing direction over the Caribbean Sea. jet blue, spiritand fedexAccording to aviation tracking site FlightAware.
“The FAA temporarily slowed and redirected the aircraft near the area where spacecraft debris had fallen. Normal operations have resumed,” the regulator said in a statement.
The airline did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment. Standard air traffic control recommendations were in place as required for rocket launches. Record demand for both launches and flights means rockets will compete with aircraft for limited airspace, especially near Florida.
Additionally, the FAA confirmed it was “evaluating” the anomaly that occurred during SpaceX’s Starship flight. The FAA often shuts down rockets after mid-flight failures, and requires space companies to investigate accidents and take corrective action before the regulator issues new launch permits.
The FAA has not received any reports of injuries or property damage from the Starship wreckage, a spokesperson told CNBC.
SpaceX’s mega-rocket Starship Booster returns to its launch pad Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025, during a test flight from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas.
Eric Gay | AP
Starship lifted off from SpaceX’s private Starbase facility near Brownsville, Texas, just after 5:30 p.m. ET. A few minutes later, the rocket’s “super heavy” booster touched down at the launch site, making SpaceX’s second successful “catch” during the flight. On the last flight, it didn’t get stuck in the booster.
No one was on board the Starship flight. But Elon Musk’s company was flying 10 Starlink simulators in the rocket’s payload bay and was planning an attempt to deploy a satellite-like object into space. This was supposed to be an important test of the rocket’s capabilities, as SpaceX needs Starship to deploy its upcoming Starlink satellites, which are much larger and heavier.
SpaceX has not disclosed the material the Starlink simulator is made of, but mass simulators are commonly used in rocket rocket development and are simple structures of metal or concrete that weigh about the same as the object in question. There are many.
Before losing contact, Starship was scheduled to reach space, circle halfway around the Earth, re-enter the atmosphere and splash down in the Indian Ocean about an hour after liftoff.
As with each previous flight, SpaceX aimed to further development by evaluating Starship’s additional features, such as testing thermal tiles and an intense re-entry trajectory.
View of SpaceX’s Starship on the launch pad for its seventh test flight in Boca Chica, Texas, USA
Maxar Technologies | via Reuters
Starship is crucial to the company’s plans, despite its $350 billion valuation and already dominant position in the space industry.
Starship is the tallest and most powerful rocket ever launched. Fully stacked on its Super Heavy booster, Starship is 403 feet tall and approximately 30 feet in diameter. SpaceX has flown the complete Starship rocket system in six spaceflight tests to date since April 2023, with the frequency steadily increasing.
The 232-foot-tall superheavy booster is the beginning of the rocket’s journey into space. At its base are 33 Raptor engines that together generate 16.7 million pounds of thrust. That’s nearly double the 8.8 million pounds of thrust of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, which first launched in 2022.
The 171-foot-tall Starship itself has six Raptor engines, three of which operate in Earth’s atmosphere and three in the vacuum of space.
The rocket is powered by liquid oxygen and liquid methane. The entire system requires more than 10 million pounds of propellant to launch.
SpaceX’s giant rocket Starship and its booster separate during a test flight from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, on Thursday, January 16, 2025.
Eric Gay | AP
The Starship flying at this launch is tagged Ship 33 and also represents a second-generation version of this vehicle called “Block 2.”
SpaceX said the rocket’s “significant upgrades” include changes to the flaps on the vehicle’s nose, a redesigned propulsion system to increase performance, and an enhanced flight computer along the vehicle to monitor the rocket. He pointed out that this includes 30 cameras positioned in front of the ground, and an enhanced heat shield. .
Additionally, this flight trial booster is powered by a repurposed Raptor engine. The engine flew during its fifth test flight last year.
The Starship system is designed to be completely reusable and aims to become a new way to fly cargo and people beyond Earth. The rocket is also important to NASA’s plans to return astronauts to the moon. SpaceX has won a multibillion-dollar contract from NASA to use Starship as a manned lunar lander as part of NASA’s Artemis moon program.
—CNBC’s Leslie Josephs contributed to this report.