A composite photo shows Starship rising from the launch pad, and the Super Heavy booster returning to the tower several minutes later.
Credit: David Diebold
SpaceX launched Starship’s eighth integrated test flight on Thursday, March 6th, producing a remarkably similar showing to its seventh flight. Exactly seven weeks after that test was cut short by an upper stage failure, Starship neatly replicated the anomaly during Thursday’s launch, once again raining debris over the Caribbean despite a successful booster landing. The event raises questions about the status of SpaceX’s next-generation launch system in a time where the company seems unburdened by outside impediments.
Thirty-three engines power the Super Heavy booster during launch.
Credit: David Diebold
A clean liftoff at 5:30 PM Central Time finally sent the rocket skyward from SpaceX’s Starbase launch site after a series of technical delays earlier in the week. First stage ascent for the Starship-Super Heavy stack proceeded as routinely as it has for the past few test missions, up to a normal stage separation and second stage ignition at about two minutes and forty seconds into the flight.
SpaceX’s “Starhopper” prototype stands in the foreground while the Super Heavy booster descends towards the waiting arms of the launch tower.
Credit: David Diebold
Despite two engines failing to ignite for its boostback burn, tracking cameras showed the Super Heavy booster navigating a safe return to Earth. With just one engine missing from its landing burn, the smoldering booster made a gentle landing on the launch tower’s “chopstick” arms, in what has rapidly become a familiar sight in South Texas.
Native cacti and palms blanket the landscape as the Super Heavy booster is caught by the tower—the third successful catch to date.
Credit: David Diebold
High overhead, the Starship second stage continued its burn eastward over the Gulf of Mexico. However, just after the eight-minute mark, all but two of its engines abruptly shut down, sending Starship tumbling through space. Soon after, all telemetry was lost, and observers on the ground witnessed a spiralling plume of gas and debris.
Starship illuminated the evening sky over Florida with a swirling cloud of vapor as it tumbled out of control. The spacecraft can be seen as a tiny shadow at the center of the plume.
Credit: Joe B.
Within minutes, pieces of the stricken spacecraft began to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere, creating a meteor shower visible throughout Florida and the Caribbean. For the second time this year, flights were diverted and airspaces cleared to avoid Starship debris. Unlike in January, however, three airports in Florida temporarily grounded flights, an escalation in precautionary measures.
Pieces of Starship rain fire over the Caribbean, disrupting local airspace.
Credit: Joe B.
More information on the failure will likely emerge with time, but the resemblance to the previous test flight is obvious. The apparently identical failure mode suggests the root cause of the previous anomaly has not been completely mitigated, and marks the second loss of the new Block 2 generation of Starship upper stages. While SpaceX consistently describes the Starship program as an iterative one, consistent and unresolved issues with Block 2 could represent major hurdles to its development. To demonstrate new capabilities like orbital maneuvering, payload deployment, and fuel transfer, Starship needs to reliably reach and return from stable orbits. Ascent failures have little place in the modern state of the program.
A closer view of the booster catch during Starship’s eighth flight test, backlit by the afternoon sun. The landing succeeded despite several engines out during descent.
Credit: David Diebold
Furthermore, although SpaceX’s obligations to the Artemis program remain an open question, Starship would benefit from more visible progress. The company’s CEO, Elon Musk, has lobbied to push crewed Mars missions to the forefront of President Trump’s agenda. Trump was present during Flight 6 to witness the Super Heavy booster abort its landing attempt, leading to a fiery explosion. Now, after spectacular back-to-back upper stage failures, Starship’s public image seems to be on uneven footing. And even without government-sponsored Mars missions, Starship depends on customer interest to remain commercially viable. A third failure of this type wouldn’t just represent technological stagnation—it could seriously damage SpaceX’s chances at selling their flagship product.
SpaceX’s second launch tower rises in the foreground as Starship is prepared for its eighth test flight.
Credit: David Diebold
The Federal Aviation Administration has initiated another investigation into this accident, but similar action after the previous flight evidently did not prevent SpaceX from flying with the same failure mode. Regulatory hurdles may indeed prove a fleeting memory for SpaceX as Musk seeks to defund or dismantle major functions of the federal government. Even international involvement from Turks and Caicos and the United Kingdom after Flight 7 has yet to bring obvious consequences to the program. In the near term, it seems only technological challenges can delay Starship’s momentum. So although major changes may be needed to eliminate the latest design flaw, SpaceX will likely return to flight as soon as they see fit, pressing ever forwards into a clouded future.
Edited by Nik Alexander