A SpaceX Starship rocket broke up during a test flight of the megarocket's capabilities Thursday.
Two extended "chopsticks" successfully caught the Super Heavy booster at its launch site -- a crucial move for SpaceX as the company hopes to catch boosters, and eventually the rockets themselves, to be reused in future launches -- for the second time in the Thursday afternoon test launch before the company lost signal with Starship.
However, the rocket system's upper stage, which was packed with upgrades for the flight test, did not survive the launch and appeared to break apart over the Gulf of Mexico or the Caribbean Sea. SpaceX confirmed on the live broadcast that the spacecraft's engines started to go out prior to planned engine cut-off and Starship later stopped delivering telemetry data.
Shortly after, social media videos emerged showing what looks like debris from Starship falling from the sky. Elon Musk posted a video of the explosion, saying "Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!"
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed! ✨ <br> <a href="https://t.co/nn3PiP8XwG">pic.twitter.com/nn3PiP8XwG</a></p>— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1880040599761596689?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 16, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Starship was meant to lap Earth and splash down in the Indian Ocean in the test flight Thursday.
"We can confirm that we did lose the ship," said SpaceX engineer Kate Tice during the company's livestream.
SpaceX wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the Starship experienced a "rapid unscheduled disassembly," which is a phrase SpaceX has used to describe the unplanned destruction of a launch vehicle or an explosion.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly during its ascent burn. Teams will continue to review data from today's flight test to better understand root cause. <br><br>With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today's flight will help us improve Starship's...</p>— SpaceX (@SpaceX) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1880033318936199643?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 16, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Starship was meant to take off from its launch site at the southern tip of Texas over the Gulf of Mexico, lap Earth and splash down in the Indian Ocean. It is still unknown why Starship exploded.
Starship has a "flight termination system" which causes the rocket to explode if it veers off course. The breaking apart of the ship ensures that large chunks of the spacecraft don't pose threats to people or property. The termination system was tested during first couple SpaceX's Starship test flights.