The highly anticipated May 27 test flight of SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft ended with the company’s third mission failure in a row, following rocket explosions in January and March.
SpaceX’s ninth test flight since 2023 used a heavy rocket booster recovered from a previous test flight. Starship launched further than the previous two test flights, but ground control lost contact with the spacecraft, which spun out of control, reentered earth’s atmosphere and broke apart.
In a post on X, SpaceX said: “As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly. Teams will continue to review data and work toward our next flight test. With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s test will help us improve Starship’s reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multiplanetary.”
The Federal Aviation Administration will require SpaceX to file paperwork on what went wrong and what it will do to protect public safety for its next launch. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said he expects approvals for future flights to be speedier.
“Launch cadence for next 3 flights will be faster, at approximately 1 every 3 to 4 weeks,” he wrote on X, the social media platform he owns. Starship launched from Starbase spaceport near Brownsville, Texas. It was streamed online as previous test flights have been.
