On May 27, 2025, SpaceX sent its ninth test flight of the company’s next-generation Starship spacecraft into orbit. Unfortunately, this highly anticipated flight turned out to be yet another embarrassment for Elon Musk’s company. The uncrewed flight was launched from the space agency’s private Starbase in Texas. It included the fully stacked Starship spacecraft, which is atop its Super Heavy booster. Like the previous released tests, this demonstration concluded with an explosion, yet another failure. This quarter’s streak of accidents began with crashes in January and March of this year.
Elon Musk highlighted a positive note from the test, stating on X, “Starship made it to the scheduled ship engine cutoff, so big improvement over last flight! No significant loss of heat shield tiles during ascent.” That initial optimism soon evaporated. As we all saw, that first test flight ended dramatically with a ‘rapid unscheduled disassembly,’ resulting in catastrophic failures for both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship.
During the test flight, the Super Heavy booster exploded shortly after launch, while the second-stage Starship encountered significant challenges, including a major fuel leak that Musk attributed to “loss of main tank pressure during the coast and re-entry phase.” As the spacecraft tried to re-enter, it started spinning out of control, before finally exploding in midair.
SpaceX would like to use that same Starship spacecraft to accomplish very lofty objectives — like colonizing Mars itself. The company has underscored the point that these test flights are key to creating a reliable, reusable spacecraft. A representative from SpaceX noted, “With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s test will help us improve Starship’s reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multiplanetary.”
Musk is set on pushing past the diabolically persistent, ongoing backlash. He’s committed to getting Starship’s launch cadence up to approximately one launch every three to four weeks. He’s focused on getting the price of space travel down quickly. This commitment is evident, even amidst some of the program’s current challenges.
While this situation develops, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is intently watching. We hope you’ll take this opportunity to respond! They indeed verified that they are keeping a close eye on the anomaly that took place during the SpaceX Starship Flight 9 mission. “There are no reports of public injury or damage to public property at this time,” stated the FAA.
SpaceX is indeed busily iterating its spacecraft and making its long-term vision a reality. The recent explosion spree shows that the aerospace innovation landscape isn’t as simple and one-dimensional as these narratives portray. The company remains focused on learning from these experiences as it strives toward a future where interplanetary travel becomes a reality.