NASA’s Space Shuttle successfully reached orbit during its first attempt in April 1981. The Saturn V rocket that launched the first humans to the Moon also didn’t explode during liftoff in July 1969. Even NASA’s ultra-expensive and expendable Space Launch System didn’t erupt into a giant fireball during its maiden voyage in late 2022.
But SpaceX has taken a strikingly different approach for its reusable, two-stage rockets. Instead of lining up an orbital-ready vehicle on the launch pad, the company has picked an iterative design methodology — with varying degrees of success, and a string of explosions that are starting to look less like learning from failure and more like a sustained failure.
The pros and cons of the approach have never been more apparent when it comes to its heavy lift vehicle, dubbed Starship, the “world’s most powerful launch vehicle” ever developed. SpaceX has run into serious issues trying to get a prototype upper stage launched into orbit, then reenter the atmosphere and make a soft landing upon its return.
During its latest attempt on Thursday evening, the company’s prototype, dubbed Starship 34, roared into the sky from SpaceX’s testing facilities in South Texas. But an “energetic event in the aft portion of Starship resulted in the loss of several engines” minutes into the launch, according to the company’s statement published late on Thursday. “This in turn led to a loss of attitude control and ultimately a loss of communications with Starship.”
It was a moment of deja vu, as Starship 34’s predecessor suffered a notably similar fate during the company’s seventh test flight in January. At the time, the prototype self-destructed following an oxygen leak, flashes, and “sustained fires” in its aft section.
In short, SpaceX has had two of its Starships break up into countless pieces in a row, resulting in a stunning display of bright streaks lighting up the night sky each time.
The back-to-back mishaps highlight the degree of difficulty SpaceX is wrestling with.
“The loss of Starship on ascent during the second flight in a row is clearly a serious setback for SpaceX,” tweeted Ars Technica‘s Eric Berger, who has published two books on the company’s history.
“Loss of engines and attitude control on SpaceX’s Starship Flight 8, failing at about the same time as Flight 7,” wrote his colleague, space reporter Stephen Clark. “Some real growing pains for the world’s largest rocket.”
Meanwhile, Musk remained quiet, eventually venting his frustration by slinging insults at his critics on his social media platform.
Where the latest setback leaves SpaceX’s ambitions to deliver NASA astronauts to the lunar surface in a matter of just two years as part of the agency’s Artemis program, let alone send humans to Mars, remains to be seen.
Through the company’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX has already demonstrated that its iterative design methodology can work. But Starship is a project of unprecedented scale, with a gargantuan learning curve.
How many more “rapid unscheduled disassemblies,” a term used by SpaceX officials to denote an explosion, can the company still afford?
SpaceX claimed that its eighth flight was a step in the right direction.
“With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve Starship’s reliability,” the company wrote in its statement. “We will conduct a thorough investigation, in coordination with the FAA, and implement corrective actions to make improvements on future Starship flight tests.”
The space firm has already moved mountains to lift a 400-foot tower of stainless steel off the ground. But getting it to reliably enter orbit, survive the extreme heat during reentry, and land in one piece appears to be a far more difficult exercise.
A major glimmer of hope, however, is Starship’s booster, Super Heavy, which was successfully caught by the company’s “Mechazilla” tower for the third time this week — a major engineering feat that could buy the company some time as it irons out the many kinks of its upper stage.
More on Starship: SpaceX Having Trouble Getting Starship Launched Again After Explosion
