A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on the Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3). This image is for illustration purposes and does not show the Starship rocket that exploded.
SpaceX Starship explosion: Disaster for Musk’s Mars programme?
Credit: Shutterstock, Capturing Images
SpaceX’s colossal Starship rocket has once again met a fiery end, tumbling out of the sky just minutes after launch and sprinkling wreckage far from its Texan pad.
Thursday, March 6’s ill-fated test flight came nearly two months after a similar incident sent flaming fragments cascading over the Turks and Caicos. This time, debris rained down on Florida after the enormous craft spiralled out of control and broke apart.
A towering launch, a turbulent tumble
The 403-foot (123-metre) Starship blasted off from SpaceX’s Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, on Thursday, 6 March 2025. Initially, it seemed on course for success: the first-stage booster flew back and was snatched mid-air at the pad by SpaceX’s famed giant robotic arms – a remarkable feat of engineering. However, the spacecraft above was not so lucky. As it barrelled eastwards, engines began to shut down, causing the vehicle to enter an out-of-control spin. Ground controllers lost contact just moments later.
Starship soared to almost 90 miles (150 kilometres) above Earth – shy of the official boundary of space – before disaster struck. Photos and videos of flaming debris rapidly appeared on social media, purportedly taken from the Florida coast near Cape Canaveral, suggesting that Starship had broken apart long before its planned ocean splashdown half a world away.
SpaceX swiftly confirmed another ‘rapid unscheduled disassembly,’ a tongue-in-cheek term the company uses to describe an unplanned explosion.
No satellites deployed, no injuries reported
After the craft’s ill-timed breakup, none of the four mock satellites – designed as stand-ins for future real payloads – reached orbit. The test flight was intended to last about an hour, culminating with a controlled re-entry over the Indian Ocean. Instead, Starship’s grand odyssey ended just minutes after launch. Fortunately, as with the previous incident, there were no reports of injuries or serious damage on the ground.
Thursday’s mishap marks the eighth test flight of Starship, which Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder, hopes will one day ferry humans to Mars. NASA has already booked the vehicle for future missions to the Moon, targeting a historic lunar landing later this decade.
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