AMSTERDAM — SpaceX’s Starship suffered a loss of attitude control after reaching space on its latest test flight May 27, leading to an uncontrolled reentry and a third consecutive failure.
Starship lifted off from SpaceX’s test site at Starbase, Texas, at 7:36 p.m. Eastern. The liftoff was delayed in the final seconds of the countdown because of an issue with a quick-disconnect fitting in ground equipment that required resetting the countdown to the T-40 second mark for several minutes to fix it.
This mission, Flight 9, sought to avoid the engine problems on the previous two test flights in January and March that caused the loss of the Starship upper stage during its ascent. All eyes were on the performance of the Starship’s six Raptor engines during a burn lasting nearly six and a half minutes.
Unlike those earlier flights, the engines appeared to operate normally, shutting down as expected after placing the vehicle in its planned suborbital trajectory. Video from the vehicle immediately after engine shutdown, though, appeared to show the vehicle venting propellants and in a slow roll.
SpaceX confirmed about 30 minutes after liftoff that Starship suffered a problem. “We are in a little bit of a spin. We did spring a leak in some of the fuel tank systems inside of Starship,” Dan Huot, a host of the SpaceX webcast of the launch, said. “At this point, we’ve essentially lost our attitude control with Starship.”
That loss of attitude control ruled out a controlled reentry. SpaceX elected to “passivate” the vehicle, venting the remaining propellant, ahead of reentry. Intermittent video from the vehicle showed the vehicle begin that reentry a little more than 40 minutes after liftoff, including damage to a flap before telemetry from the vehicle was lost at nearly T+47 minutes. The reentry occurred over a portion of the Indian Ocean where airspace and maritime notices were in place.
“Leaks caused loss of main tank pressure during the coast and re-entry phase. Lot of good data to review,” Elon Musk, chief executive of SpaceX, posted on social media after the loss of the vehicle. “Launch cadence for next 3 flights will be faster, at approximately 1 every 3 to 4 weeks.”
The plan for this mission included opening Starship’s payload bay door and releasing eight simulated next-generation Starlink satellites, which would also go on suborbital trajectories and reenter separately from Starship. However, the payload door failed to fully open and the release of the simulated satellites was canceled. It was not immediately clear if the failure of the door to open was associated to the propellant leak and loss of attitude control.
SpaceX also called off plans to relight a Raptor engine while in space. The uncontrolled reentry meant that SpaceX was unable to test alternative heat shield tiles or stress-test vulnerable areas on the vehicle, as planned.
SpaceX also fell short on some test objectives for the Super Heavy booster. The flight was the first to use a previously flown booster, in this case Booster 14, which launched Flight 7. SpaceX said before the launch it would not attempt a return of the booster to the launch site, carrying out tests intended to refine the flight profile of the vehicle and save propellant.
Those tests appeared to initially go as expected, but the vehicle was destroyed when it ignited its engines for a final landing burn.
Flight 9 is the third Starship test flight in a row that failed to make a controlled reentry and splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The previous two failures involved unrelated, separate issues with the Starship upper stage’s propulsion system. The failure raises new questions about SpaceX’s development of Starship and its ability to carry out key missions, including the Artemis 3 lunar landing currently scheduled for the middle of 2027.
Jared Isaacman, whose nomination to be NASA administrator its set to be confirmed by the Senate as soon as next week, expressed his appreciation for SpaceX continuing to show video from Starship as it began its uncontrolled reentry. “Appreciate the transparency–and bringing us space enthusiasts along through the highs and lows of a test program,” he said in a social media post moments after the loss of the vehicle.
“Some may focus on the lows,” he wrote, but argued that Starship and other launch vehicles in development are creating a “massive space economy” that will open up space. “When these capabilities arrive, they will spearhead a new era of exploration and discovery–and the lows will become a chapter in a much longer story.”
