SpaceX’s ambitious Starship program suffered another setback on Thursday as the massive rocket exploded shortly after liftoff, further delaying Elon Musk’s plans for Mars exploration.
The 400-foot spacecraft, equipped with 33 Raptor engines, launched at 6:30 p.m. ET from the Starbase facility near Brownsville, Texas. However, about nine minutes into its flight, the rocket began spinning out of control as its engines failed, leading to a total loss of communication with mission control.
SpaceX quickly stopped the live video feed and later described the incident as a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.”
In a statement on X (formerly Twitter), the company said it would analyze data from the flight test to determine the cause of the failure.
“As always, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will offer additional lessons to improve Starship’s reliability,” SpaceX stated.
This marks the second consecutive failed launch in recent weeks, with a previous explosion sending debris from a Starship vehicle into the Atlantic Ocean.
Despite the setbacks, Musk remains committed to his vision of interplanetary travel, insisting that each test brings the company closer to making Starship a viable transport system for missions to the Moon and Mars.