Starship placed on a present for skywatchers but once more — however not the best way that SpaceX would have appreciated.
SpaceX launched the eighth test flight of Starship, the largest and strongest rocket ever constructed, from its Starbase web site in South Texas on Thursday night (March 6).
Starship‘s enormous first-stage booster, often known as Tremendous Heavy, got here again to Starbase for a launch-tower catch about seven minutes after liftoff as deliberate. However the car’s 171-foot-tall (52 meters) higher stage — referred to as Starship or simply Ship — skilled a major problem shortly thereafter and ended up exploding over the Atlantic Ocean.
The detonation despatched chunks of particles raining down over the realm, creating a stunning synthetic meteor shower for individuals in The Bahamas and Florida’s House Coast, amongst different locales.
One thing very comparable occurred throughout Starship’s Flight 7, which launched on Jan. 16. Many of us within the debris-fall zone posted video of the Flight 7 particles fall on X, the social media web site owned by SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk — and historical past repeated itself on Thursday.
Associated: Watch SpaceX Starship explode over Atlantic Ocean on Flight Test 7 (videos)
One of many individuals with a front-row seat for the Flight 8 fireworks was Stefanie Waldek, a journalist who additionally occurs to be a House.com contributor.
“I’m on trip with my household in The Bahamas, particularly within the Exumas. I had adopted on-line the failure of Starship Flight 8, and inside a couple of minutes, I noticed the particles streaking throughout the sky,” Waldek informed House.com by way of e mail.
“I didn’t even take into consideration being beneath the trajectory of the rocket! Fortuitously, I knew precisely what we have been following Flight 7’s RUD [rapid unscheduled disassembly], and I rapidly defined to these round me that we weren’t beneath assault, nor was the rocket crewed,” she added. “The sunshine present was utterly silent — we didn’t hear something. However the reflection on the water from the burning particles was fairly fairly!”
RIP Starship 8! Nice view from the Bahamas. @SpaceX #spacex #starship8 pic.twitter.com/8p2Dcx5gbzMarch 6, 2025
An X person with the deal with GeneDoctorB additionally recorded the sky present from The Bahamas, posting a number of movies of the occasion on X. “How would you prefer to see this above your #catamaran?” one of them was captioned.
How would you prefer to see this above your #catamaran ? #SpaceX #Elon #starship8 pic.twitter.com/xCjntoUoTZMarch 7, 2025
Photographer Trevor Mahlmann, in the meantime, watched Flight 8 from Titusville, on Florida’s House Coast — the house of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral House Power Station.
He captured the second that Ship exploded and shared it with us on X. “RIP Starship Flight 8, simply caught it exploding after just a few engines reduce off and it dropping angle management, seen from Titusville, FL,” Mahlmann wrote.
RIP Starship Flight 8, simply caught it exploding after just a few engines reduce off and it dropping angle management, seen from Titusville, FL🚀 pic.twitter.com/VBBtApjsd7March 6, 2025
SpaceX decided that they Flight 7 mishap was brought on by propellant leaks, which led to sustained fires within the Ship higher stage. It is too quickly to say what occurred on Flight 8, however the firm is already investigating.
“Throughout Starship’s ascent burn, the car skilled a fast unscheduled disassembly and phone was misplaced. Our crew instantly started coordination with security officers to implement pre-planned contingency responses. We are going to assessment the info from right now’s flight check to raised perceive root trigger. As at all times, success comes from what we be taught, and right now’s flight will supply extra classes to enhance Starship’s reliability,” SpaceX said via X this night.
