SpaceX’s seventh Starship test flight delivered success and an unexpected loss. Launched from the company’s Starbase facility in Texas on Thursday, January 16, SpaceX successfully caught the Super Heavy booster using the Mechazilla launch tower’s “chopstick” arms for the second time. However, the upper-stage Starship vehicle suffered a rapid unscheduled disassembly and was lost before completing its mission.
One of the most exciting aspects of this flight was the recovery of the Super Heavy booster by catching it mid-air using the launch tower. This complex maneuver, first successfully executed in October 2024 during flight 5, is a key component of SpaceX’s long-term strategy for full rocket reusability.
Seven minutes after liftoff, the booster made a controlled descent and landed perfectly into the launch tower’s arms, demonstrating the reliability of this recovery method. The smooth execution of the booster catch for a second time marks a significant step toward making Starship a fully reusable space system. SpaceX aborted a booster catch attempt during flight 6 due to anomalies on the vehicle.
Incredible! Another successful booster catch by @SpaceX. They make it look like they’ve done this a thousand times! pic.twitter.com/oO4Zoww0rd
— Drive Tesla (@DriveTeslaca) January 16, 2025
Despite the success of the booster recovery, the mission encountered a setback when SpaceX lost contact with the upper-stage Starship about 8 minutes into the test flight. The vehicle, traveling at over 21,000km/h (13,048mph) at an altitude of 146km (90 miles), was expected to deploy 10 mock Starlink satellites as a test for future payload deployments.
However, telemetry showed that several of Ship’s six Raptor engines began to fail before communications were lost entirely.
Before SpaceX confirmed the loss of the vehicle, video footage emerged from the Turks and Caicos showing the upper stage breaking apart in the sky in spectacular fashion. SpaceX later confirmed that the vehicle was lost before reaching its intended splashdown site in the Indian Ocean. The moment of the explosion was also caught on camera from a cruise ship in the Caribbean Sea.
UPDATE: Starship did not survive pic.twitter.com/OiCYECT6lA https://t.co/nQUJ0gy22M
— Drive Tesla (@DriveTeslaca) January 16, 2025
Here’s the moment @SpaceX Starship exploded. pic.twitter.com/wmos0ewBRv
— Drive Tesla (@DriveTeslaca) January 16, 2025
The exact cause of the anomaly remains unclear, but engineers will now review the flight data to diagnose the failure.
Despite this setback, SpaceX remains committed to advancing Starship’s capabilities. Elon Musk had previously suggested that a Starship tower catch could be attempted as early as flight 8, provided that flight 7 demonstrated a successful splashdown. With the loss of Ship, however, this timeline may be delayed as SpaceX assesses what went wrong.
SpaceX aims to conduct multiple Starship test flights in 2025, with a focus on refining both the booster and upper-stage recovery processes. While Flight 7 ended with mixed results, SpaceX’s rapid iteration approach ensures that lessons learned will lead to improved designs and future successes.
