SpaceX Starship megastar explodes during test flight, but accelerator «saved by Mechazilla tower robotic arms

The seventh test flight of Starship had two main objectives — to replicate the success of the first stage “landing” and to test the updated version of the spacecraft, but unfortunately, things did not go as planned with the second item for SpaceX.

The mega-rocket, standing 123 meters tall, launched from the Starbase space base in South Texas at 00:36 Kyiv time, reached the necessary altitude, and successfully completed the stage separation process. Interestingly, both stages ultimately provided the spectators with incredible spectacles: the first by landing back into the arms of the Mechazilla tower for the second time, and the second by creating a light show with fragments falling after being detonated.

You can see the much higher propellant mass fraction of the new ship design by the percentage of rocket that is frosty
pic.twitter.com/uzhDOc38mV

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 17, 2025

I slowed down today’s @SpaceX booster catch, zoomed in a little, added some badass music, and a few other touches. Wow, those Raptor engines look beautiful! 🚀 pic.twitter.com/8sNYpyZR9A

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) January 17, 2025

Communication with the second stage was lost around the 8th minute after the flight’s start. The telemetry on the screen showed that 5 engines had shut down sequentially — at 8 minutes 25 seconds, the screen was showing only one engine operating, however, the speed and altitude of the spacecraft were no longer updated.

Starship exploding captured on an airplane pic.twitter.com/Y5maQrfmPG

— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) January 17, 2025

Later, Musk clarified that the failure was preliminarily caused by a leak of oxygen and fuel in the cavity above the fire-resistant partition of the engine, which was large enough to create pressure exceeding the capacity of the ventilation port.

It should be noted that an updated version of Starship was used for the seventh test flight. The front fins were reduced and moved from the joint where more heat accumulates, and the ship itself was made a couple of meters taller; also, in some places, heat shield tiles were intentionally omitted (presumably to conduct a stress test and see how the ship would handle re-entry into the atmosphere), and the fuel tank volume was increased by 25%. This time, Starship also carried a payload — mockups of Starlink satellites, which eventually exploded along with the ship.