SpaceX’s Starship rocket system experienced an in-flight breakup of its upper stage during atmospheric re-entry on Tuesday, May 27, after its first-stage Super Heavy booster also exploded prematurely. This integrated test flight marks another partial success with a controlled launch, but ultimately fell short of its full mission objectives, continuing the high-stakes test campaign for Elon Musk’s Mars colonization vehicle.
The two-stage Starship system, recognized as the largest and most powerful launch vehicle ever constructed, lifted off at approximately 6:36 PM local time (2336 GMT) from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in South Texas. The flight initially proceeded smoothly, and a few minutes into the mission, the Super Heavy booster successfully separated from the Starship upper stage. However, as the recycled booster maneuvered for its planned controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, it encountered an issue and exploded. SpaceX commentators noted that a hard splashdown was expected regardless of the anomaly.
The Starship upper stage proceeded into space, flying farther than on its two previous attempts. Yet, complications arose: the vehicle’s bay doors, designed to deploy Starlink satellite simulators, reportedly failed to open. Approximately 35 minutes into the planned 66-minute flight, as Starship began its descent toward Earth’s atmosphere, telemetry indicated trouble. SpaceX commentators confirmed that the spacecraft lost attitude control due to fuel leaks in its tank systems, causing it to spin uncontrollably. Mission teams attempted to mitigate the issue by venting fuel. Ultimately, onboard cameras ceased transmitting, and SpaceX later confirmed that Starship experienced a “rapid unscheduled disassembly” — a company euphemism for its breakup — during re-entry. The vehicle was tracking towards a splashdown zone in the Indian Ocean.
“As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly. Teams will continue to review data and work toward our next flight test. 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,” the company announced in a post on X.
This incident follows two previous Starship test flights in January and March that also ended in rapid unscheduled disassembly shortly after takeoff. The January failure was attributed to intense vibrations worsening a propellant leak, leading to fires, while the March incident was linked to a likely hardware issue in one of Starship’s Raptor engines. SpaceX has stated it investigated these incidents, implemented fixes, and affirmed the failures were “distinctly different.” The company plans to equip future Starship vehicles with new, more reliable “Raptor 3” engines. Earlier test flights, however, saw the vehicle reach space, partially orbit Earth, survive atmospheric re-entry, and execute a roughly planned ocean splashdown, demonstrating critical aspects of the system.
Despite the latest setback, Starship remains the keystone to Musk’s space ambitions, and is also crucial for SpaceX’s contracts with NASA, which total approximately $4 billion, to land astronauts on the Moon. Musk has set an ambitious goal for SpaceX to send a Starship rocket carrying Tesla robots to Mars as early as 2026. “We’re going to learn, iterate and iterate over and over again,” commented SpaceX’s Jessie Anderson. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), responsible for licensing Starship flights, confirmed it was aware of the “anomaly” and is collaborating with SpaceX on the event’s investigation. No reports of public injury or damage to public property have been received.
