SpaceX’s Starship suffered a fatal malfunction during its latest test flight, spiraling out of control in space and marking the second consecutive launch where the vehicle experienced a catastrophic failure on its way to orbit.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has briefly halted flights into major Florida airports and diverted others due to concerns about “space launch debris.” The agency is now requiring SpaceX to conduct a mishap investigation into the incident.
During the test flight, which used the Super Heavy booster, everything appeared normal for the first eight minutes. However, at around 8:09 minutes into the flight, multiple Raptor engines on Starship failed, causing the ship to lose attitude control and spiral out of control over the ocean.
“We just saw some engines go out… it looks like we are losing attitude control of the ship,” SpaceX communications manager Dan Huot said during a broadcast. “At this point we have lost contact with the ship.”
The incident has raised concerns about the reliability of Starship, which was designed to deploy four dummy versions of its Starlink satellites during the test flight. The company had been rapidly testing and refining Starship’s design in preparation for commercial missions.
Just days ago, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk faced backlash from federal officials over his involvement in the Department of Government Efficiency initiative, which oversees SpaceX flights. This has added to the pressure on the company as it continues to push the boundaries of space technology.
The failure marks the second consecutive test flight where Starship experienced a fatal problem. The previous incident occurred just weeks ago, when Starship broke up over the Turks & Caicos islands due to propellant leaks inside the spacecraft.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/06/spacex-starship-spirals-out-of-control-in-second-straight-test-flight-failure