SpaceX's Starship flight test fails again, ending in a fiery mid-air explosion over Florida-Bahamas

SpaceX’s Starship Test Ends in Mid-Air Explosion Again. (Image: SpaceX)

SpaceX’s latest Starship test flight ended in partial failure on Thursday. The rocket lifted off successfully, but its upper stage exploded mid-air. This marks the second consecutive time the upper stage has failed, despite improvements.

The Starship mega-rocket launched from SpaceX’s Starbase in Texas at 5:30 p.m. (2330 GMT). The booster stage was successfully caught by the launch tower’s "chopstick" arms. However, the upper stage lost control before the live feed cut out.

Just saw Starship 8 blow up in the Bahamas @SpaceX @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/rTMJu23oVx
Jonathon Norcross (@NorcrossUSA) March 6, 2025

SpaceX official Dan Huot confirmed the failure, saying, “We did lose contact with the ship. Unfortunately, this happened last time, too.” A similar incident occurred during the January 16 test, which scattered debris over the Caribbean.

SpaceX Responds to Setback
Following the explosion, SpaceX released a statement acknowledging the issue. “We will review the data to understand the root cause. Success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will provide lessons to improve Starship’s reliability,” the company said.

During Starship's ascent burn, the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly and contact was lost. Our team immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses.We will review the data from today's flight test to better SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 7, 2025

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had permitted the launch before completing its review of the January failure. That test ended with debris falling over the Turks and Caicos Islands, prompting cleanup efforts.

Yet another rapid unplanned disassembly of Starship.This time over the Bahamas.Perhaps Elon should spend more time trying to keep his cars and rockets from blowing up rather than trying to disassemble our government and crash the economy.pic.twitter.com/TOI7TigDlg
Art Candee (@ArtCandee) March 7, 2025

Starship’s Role in Future Missions
Standing 403 feet (123 meters) tall, Starship is the world’s most powerful rocket. It plays a key role in Elon Musk’s vision of colonising Mars. NASA is also relying on a modified version of Starship for its Artemis programme. This initiative aims to return astronauts to the Moon within this decade.

SpaceXs Starship spacecraft explodes midflight for a second time! #SpaceX #RocketExplodes #ElonMusk #Mars SpaceX again loses its Starship rocket on test flight after explosion during previous attempt #Starship pic.twitter.com/n6t8yG7rJI "We The People" (@VettedNewsCorp) March 7, 2025

Despite setbacks, SpaceX had introduced upgrades to improve the upper stage’s reliability. The company had also planned to deploy Starlink simulators to test satellite deployment. However, the fate of the upper stage remains uncertain as SpaceX ended its livestream 40 minutes after launch.