SpaceX Starship rocket lost in second test flight

The Federal Aviation Administration, which licensed the Starship's test flight today, just issued a statement:

The agency is expected to begin a mishap investigation of the launch, as is routine after any space mission that does not go exactly to plan.

It took more than four months for the FAA to complete the last mishap investigation after Starship's test flight in April.

The Super Heavy booster — the bottommost portion of the Starship system that gives the first burst of power at liftoff — was able to ignite all 33 of its Raptor engines at liftoff.

That had not been done before. Even during ground tests, SpaceX has had a hard time getting all of those engines, clustered together at the base of the rocket, to power on consistently at the same time.

But all of the engines appeared to function as intended this time around, burning together throughout the entire duration of Super Heavy's flight, which lasted about two and a half minutes, or until it ran out of most of its fuel.

Super Heavy then exploded as SpaceX tested out a new means of separating the rocket booster from the Starship spacecraft — but SpaceX had already achieved something big.

NASA's chief — Bill Nelson — offered his congratulations after the Starship flight.

Jim Free — associate administrator for NASA's exploration systems development mission directorate — also posted a note on social media saying that this test flight marked a step forward for the Starship development program.

NASA is paying SpaceX up to more than $4 billion for Starship. The space agency intends to use the spacecraft to land astronauts on the moon under its flagship Artemis program.

The first landing using a Starship vehicle is slated for as soon as December 2025. But Free has previously expressed concerns that Starship won't be ready in time, warning the mission could slip to 2026 or NASA could be forced to design a new flight profile.

Free was recently promoted to be NASA's associate administrator — the agency's third highest-ranking executive. He will take over that role in December.

SpaceX did not finish the entire mission, and both the Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy booster exploded over the ocean.

But there were some big highlights for SpaceX.

The rocket made it much further into its flight profile than during the first flight attempt in April, when Starship began tumbling tail-over-head about four minutes after liftoff. The Starship never even separated from the Super Heavy booster during that test.

This time, however, SpaceX did achieve that milestone: About two and a half minutes into flight, the Starship powered up its engines and successfully broke away using a brand new method called "hot staging."

SpaceX had already said it would consider the mission a success if Starship made it past that point. And it did.

It did not, however, go exactly as planned. The Super Heavy booster began tumbling out of control just after separation, and it exploded over the Gulf of Mexico just moments later. SpaceX had hoped to reignite the Super Heavy's engines and guide it to a controlled landing.

Losing the booster isn't a huge setback. Initially, Starship continued moving along just fine after breaking away from Super Heavy.

About 8 minutes after liftoff, cheers could be heard echoing throughout mission control as the Starship was approaching the end of its engine burn — putting it on a path toward Earth's orbit.

But 9 minutes after launch — SpaceX made it clear that it lost video signal with Starship.

And about 11 and a half minutes into the flight, the company confirmed it had lost data. That indicated Starship wasn't flying as planned.

Engineer John Insprucker, hosting SpaceX's livestream, then confirmed SpaceX was forced to destroy Starship so it didn't veer off course.

The company is already emphasizing that, in its view, this test was a success.

In a tweet, the company said the same thing as it did after April's short-lived test flight:

The company has been known to embrace failures and fiery mishaps in the early stages of rocket development. It's built into the company's engineering philosophy, which welcomes early risks during test flights in the name of learning and refining the vehicle's design quicker than if it relied on ground tests.

The Starship system made it much further into flight than the first attempt in April, but ultimately ended in another explosion.

The rocket and spacecraft safely lifted off the pad, with the Super Heavy booster igniting all 33 of its engines. During the last attempt, multiple engines shut down prematurely.

Then, the Super Heavy booster and Starship spacecraft successfully separated, as the Starship lit up its engines and pushed away.

That process, however, ended up destroying the Super Heavy booster, which erupted into a ball of flames over the Gulf of Mexico. But the Starship spacecraft was able to briefly continue its journey.

A few minutes later, however, SpaceX was not able to regain a signal from the vehicle. And the company confirmed on its livestream that it was forced to trigger Starship's self-destruct feature.

As Starship was set to enter the coast phase, SpaceX said it was unable to receive data from Starship's second stage.

This means the spacecraft "wouldn't be able wouldn't be able to come back in an hour or so and possibly get ready for reentry," according to the SpaceX live stream.

The company confirmed on its livestream that it was forced to trigger Starship's "flight termination system" — which is essentially a self-destruct feature that SpaceX engaged to prevent the Starship from traveling off course.

SpaceX ended the livestream shortly after.

The Super Heavy booster just blew up.

It wasn't supposed to do that. SpaceX was hoping to guide it to a controlled spalshdown in the ocean.

But the spacecraft — the crucial part — is still moving, blaring to faster speeds toward space.

The countdown clock struck zero and the Super Heavy booster attempted to light up its 33 engines, roaring to life and sending a deafening boom across the launch site.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket just hit “Max Q,” an aerospace term that refers to the point during flight at which a vehicle experiences its maximum dynamic pressure.

Put simply: It’s when the rocket is moving at very high speed, at a time when the atmosphere is still pretty thick, putting a lot of pressure on the vehicle.