Mirror Review
May 28th, 2025
Summary:
- SpaceX’s ambitious Starship program faced another hurdle as its ninth test flight, SpaceX Starship Flight 9, ended with the loss of both its booster and the upper-stage spacecraft.
- While the launch on May 27 from Starbase, Texas, saw the massive rocket reach space — a significant step beyond recent explosive failures — it ultimately spun out of control, highlighting ongoing challenges.
- This marks the third consecutive Starship test flight to end in an explosion or loss of vehicle, following incidents in January and March.
- This latest SpaceX launch aimed to test crucial systems, including the first-ever reuse of a Super Heavy booster, which previously flew on Flight 7.
- The FAA confirmed that no public injuries or property damage were reported.
The Promising Start of SpaceX Starship Flight 9 Launch
The 400-foot-tall Starship rocket, central to Elon Musk’s vision of Mars colonization, lifted off successfully at 6:36 p.m. CT on Tuesday.
A major milestone for this starship launch was the use of a Super Heavy booster that had previously flown on Flight 7 in January, demonstrating progress towards reusability.
The two stages separated as planned, and the upper stage, known as Ship, successfully reached suborbital space, with Musk noting, “Starship made it to the scheduled ship engine cutoff, so big improvement over last flight!”.
The upper stage flew with several improvements based on learnings from previous flights.
What Went Wrong: The Causes of the SpaceX Starship Flight 9 Crash
Despite initial successes, the Starship Flight 9 mission encountered several critical failures:
- Booster Demise:
While the Super Heavy booster performed its boostback burn and tested a higher angle of attack to slow its descent, it didn’t complete its planned “hard splashdown” in the Gulf of Mexico.
Contact was lost, and SpaceX confirmed the booster broke apart about 6 minutes and 20 seconds into the flight, shortly after relighting 13 engines for its landing burn.
- Payload Door Malfunction:
A plan to deploy eight mock Starlink satellites was cancelled because the spacecraft’s payload bay door was unable to open as designed. This was meant to be a first for the Starship program.
- Fuel Leak & Loss of Control:
The most significant failure occurred about 30 minutes into the flight. A leak on Starship’s primary fuel tank led to a loss of pressure.
This, in turn, caused the spacecraft to lose its attitude control, resulting in an uncontrollable spin.
“Not looking great with a lot of our on-orbit objectives for today”, admitted SpaceX broadcaster Dan Huot.
- Early End:
Due to the loss of control, plans to relight an engine in space were bypassed.
Starship initiated an automated safing process, but contact was lost approximately 46 minutes into the flight, and it was presumed to have broken up during reentry over the Indian Ocean.
SpaceX on Learning from Failure
Despite the setbacks, SpaceX remains optimistic, emphasizing its learning-based approach.
The company embraces a “risk-tolerant” engineering culture, using test flights to push hardware to its limits and learn quickly.
“With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s test will help us improve Starship’s reliability”, SpaceX stated.
Elon Musk echoed this sentiment, highlighting the “lot of good data to review” and promising a faster launch schedule ahead.
He predicted, “Launch cadence for next 3 flights will be faster, at approximately 1 every 3 to 4 weeks”.
Dan Huot added, “We are trying to do something that is impossibly hard… You’re not going to reach it in a straight line”.
What’s Next for SpaceX’s Starship?
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating the incident but has noted its approval for an increased launch cadence for SpaceX.
This SpaceX Starship launch failure, however, adds pressure to a program critical not only for Musk’s Mars ambitions but also for NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to use Starship to land astronauts on the moon by 2027.
SpaceX must overcome these hurdles to prove the reliability of its groundbreaking rocket system.
The “impossibly hard” journey to make life multiplanetary continues, with the SpaceX Starship Flight 9 serving as another challenging, yet crucial, step.
