Elon Musk’s Ambitious Rocket Project Fails As SpaceX’s Starship Test Flight Ends Mid-Air

<p>SpaceX’s ambitious Starship project suffered another major setback on Tuesday after its later test flight ended in failure as the spacecraft spun out of control and broke apart.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The ninth demonstration flight carrying 403 feet rocket lifted off from the company’s test site in southern Texas. Space X CEO Elon Musk anticipated that the spacecraft, designed for deep-space missions to Moon and Mars, would complete ket milestones during the test, including releasing mock satellites and testing its heat shield during reentry.&nbsp;</p>
<p>However, the spacecraft developed complication shortly after the liftofff and broke apart.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The two-stage spacecraft comprised Starship vessel mounted atop a towering SpaceX Super Heavy rocket booster and blasted off at about 7:36 pm (EDT).&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-media-max-width=”560″>
<p dir=”ltr” lang=”en”>Liftoff of Starship! <a href=”https://t.co/aXAwLkRbuK”>pic.twitter.com/aXAwLkRbuK</a></p>
&mdash; SpaceX (@SpaceX) <a href=”https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1927509601001341037?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>May 27, 2025</a></blockquote>
<p>
<script src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” async=”” charset=”utf-8″></script>
</p>
<p>Initially, things went as expected with the 232-foot first-stage rocket separating from the upper-stage Starship vehicle several minutes after launch and heading back towards Earth, according to a Reuters report.&nbsp;</p>
<p>However, during its descent, SpaceX controllers lost contact with the booster before it presumably plunged into the sea instead of making the controlled planned splashdown.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The upper-stage Starship vehicle continued to climb to space, reaching its planned suborbital trajectory about nine minutes into the flight.&nbsp;</p>
<p>As per the report, in one of the test-flight mishaps, Starship’s payload doors failed to open to release a group of simulated satellites.&nbsp;</p>
<p>SpaceX planned to complete Starship’s experimental flight of less than 90 minutes with a controlled descent and splashdown in the Indian Ocean.</p>
<p>But, about thirty minutes after the launch, the flight team lost attitude control over Starship, said SpaceX, leaving the vehicle in a spin as it continued to head for atmospheric re-entry.&nbsp;</p>
<p>”We will not be aligned as we wanted it to be aligned for re-entry,” a SpaceX commentator said during the livestream. “Our chances of making it all the way down are pretty slim.”</p>