SpaceX again loses its Starship rocket on a test flight after an explosion in the previous attempt

SpaceX launched the eighth integrated test flight of its massive Starship megarocket system Thursday night, seeking to stress-test the spaceship and meet goals missed during the previous catastrophic test in January. However, like the seventh test flight, the eighth mission ended in the loss of the Starship vehicle.

The Federal Aviation Administration halted flights to multiple Florida airports on Thursday night after a SpaceX Starship test failure.

But, once again, the mission was cut short when controllers lost communication with the upper-stage vehicle.

At 6:30 p.m. ET, the 400-foot-tall Starship system launched from SpaceX's Starbase location in Brownsville, Texas, on its eighth test flight.

However, little over 8 minutes into the journey — around the same time as the January incident — multiple engines seemed to shut down while the upper-stage Starship spacecraft was still hurtling toward space. Before connection was lost, live video showed the ship whirling.

“I think it’s pretty obvious we’re not going to continue the rest of the mission today,” SpaceX communications manager Dan Huot said on the company’s live webcast.

The unmanned mission launched at 5:30 p.m. CT (6:30 p.m. ET) from SpaceX's Starbase facility in South Texas. The business had canceled a Tuesday launch attempt because to "too many question marks," according to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, which resulted in a scrub.

The Starship spaceship, also known as the upper stage, sat atop the Super Heavy rocket booster, which stood 232 feet (71 meters) tall. Super Heavy detached from the top stage after about 2 ½ minutes of fire.

The rocket then prepared itself for a successful landing in the "chopstick" arms of "Mechazilla," SpaceX's launch tower in Brownsville, Texas.

SpaceX's major test objectives for Starship's eighth test flight, including an attempt to restart a single Starship engine in orbit, were substantially similar to those from January, when Flight 7 was cut short by flames.

The loss of communication occurred around the same time during this mission as Flight 7, when Starship detonated over populous Turks and Caicos islands, leaving debris and damaging a vehicle.

SpaceX's own examination of the explosion determined that the most likely cause was leaking propellant, which caused "sustained fires" in a part of the Starship called as the "attic," located between the bottom of the liquid oxygen tank and the back heat shield.

Although the test flight was short-lived, it did achieve one significant milestone. The Super Heavy booster successfully returned to its launch location and landed on the tower's robotic arms. It was the third time SpaceX displayed the remarkable "catch" maneuver, which is a major component of the company's ambition of making Starship a completely reusable system.

Starship, the most powerful rocket ever created, is made up of two parts: a first-stage booster known as Super Heavy and an upper-stage spaceship.

According to SpaceX executives, hundreds of test missions will be completed before the megarocket is used to transport passengers.

The next-generation Starship megarocket is planned to play an important role in NASA's attempts to return to the Moon. NASA has chosen SpaceX to transport men to the lunar surface on its planned Artemis III mission, which is set to launch in 2027. Musk has also stated that Starship may be utilized for future expeditions to Mars.