What Happened to SpaceX’s Starship 8? Inside the Explosive Test Flight
Starship 8 took off, and eight minutes later multiple engines cut off as the upper stage of the spaceship was still accelerating.
Published March 7 2025, 11:07 a.m. ET
For the second time in 2025, SpaceX experienced an explosion during a test flight — and this time it was its eighth test flight that went down in flames.
On Thursday, March 6, the SpaceX Starship 8 mega rocket burst into flames mere minutes into Elon Musk-founded company’s latest test flight, according to NBC News. Controllers of the flight lost contact with the upper-stage vehicle of the aircraft.
What happened to Starship 8?
At 6:30 p.m. local time at the SpaceX Starbase site in Brownsville, Texas, Starship 8 took off, and eight minutes later, multiple engines cut off as the upper stage of the spaceship was still accelerating, per NBC News. Communication was eventually lost to the aircraft before it exploded.
In a statement addressing the Starship 8 explosion, the company explained what happened.
"Prior to the end of the ascent burn, an energetic event in the aft portion of Starship resulted in the loss of several Raptor engines," SpaceX said. "This in turn led to a loss of attitude control and ultimately a loss of communications with Starship."
The FAA is requiring SpaceX to launch an investigation into the explosion.
Following the explosion of Starship 8, the FAA confirmed that SpaceX is now required to conduct a mishap investigation into what went wrong, according to ABC News.
“We will conduct a thorough investigation, in coordination with the FAA, and implement corrective actions to make improvements on future Starship flight tests,” SpaceX said in its statement, per the outlet.
The latest SpaceX flight explosion is similar to ones in the past.
Back in April 2023, the first Starship test flight ended in an explosion just before a booster exploration while flying above the Gulf of Mexico, according to NPR.
Additional test flights in November 2023 and January 2025, both also ended in explosions. Subsequent flights throughout 2024 were all unsuccessful attempts.
SpaceX addresses its latest explosion.
”Following the anomaly, SpaceX teams immediately began coordination with the FAA, ATO (air traffic control), and other safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses,” the company said on its website.
“With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve Starship’s reliability. We will conduct a thorough investigation, in coordination with the FAA, and implement corrective actions to make improvements on future Starship flight tests,” the statement said.
Elon, SpaceX founder and CEO, has yet to speak publicly about the incident but has previously viewed the unsuccessful Starship flights and explosions as successful.
It’s expected that despite this latest failure, SpaceX is gearing up for another launch or additional launches before the end of the year.