SpaceX launched a Starship prototype into space for the 8th time yesterday. Interestingly, the Flight 8 Super Heavy rocket (Booster 15) followed its normal trajectory of ascent and return and was successfully caught by the launch tower Chopsticks.
However, this was not the case for the upper stage Starship in Flight 8. After facing a rapid unscheduled disassembly (RUD) in the previous Flight 7 test, another Starship spacecraft is lost during the Flight 8 test on Thursday, 6th March 2025.
The Flight 7 Ship 33 was the first and the Flight 8 Ship 34 was the second Starship V2 prototype. This iteration of the Starship has yet to complete its normal trajectory and make a soft splashdown water landing.
The Flight 8 launch and landing test (integrated flight test #8/IFT-8) was the 2nd opportunity for SpaceX to test the performance of the new Starship V2 generation. However, SpaceX couldn’t accomplish this objective on Flight 8 due to the failure of Ship 33 meeting its ultimate fate of a RUD.
Flight 8 Ship 33 coasted for about T+ 8 minutes and 5 seconds into the flight but two sea-level and 1 vacuum engines died at an altitude of 146 km. The spacecraft lost attitude control because of this abrupt engine shutdown. Flight 8 Starship started revolving in space and lost another vacuum engine at T+9 minutes 11 seconds.
This incident took away the chance of testing the Starship V2 upgrades and improvements SpaceX made in the new generation. The new forward flaps also didn’t get tested in a real flight scenario because the Ship never made an atmospheric reentry.
Minutes after the Flight 8 Starship was lost and destroyed in space, the falling and burning debris was spotted in the sky from the Caribbean Islands and western Atlantic Ocean (videos below).
“Never give up” Elon Musk
— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) March 7, 2025
Starship 8 debris pic.twitter.com/NseQxyEZWP
SpaceX's Starship rocket exploded Thursday night less than 10 minutes after its launch from Texas, showering debris over the Caribbean and western Atlantic and giving millions of skygazers across Florida and the Caribbean quite the show. MORE: https://t.co/l1hJkOROVF pic.twitter.com/XcgVfxID3Q
— FOX Weather (@foxweather) March 7, 2025
SpaceX hasn’t been able to make an atmospheric reentry with a V2 Starship yet. These new Starship V2 spaceships are wider and taller compared to the previous generation (V1).
Starship V1 was able to coast into space, reenter the Earth’s atmosphere, and make a vertical splashdown landing successfully in the Flight 6 test. It seems as if there is a technical issue with the V2 Starships that is preventing it from following its projected path and finally making a landing.
The data from the Flight 7 and Flight 8 tests will enable SpaceX to make even more improvements and upgrades to demonstrate a successful Starship upper stage landing in the upcoming Flight 9 launch and landing test (no date announced yet).
SpaceX has however perfected the landing-catch of the Super Heavy rocket booster that was once again demonstrated in the Flight 8 test. The landing-catch pins align to the holes on the launch tower (Mechazilla) Chopsticks with precision, which is always exciting to watch.
Mechazilla has caught the Super Heavy booster! pic.twitter.com/JFeJSdnQ5x
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 6, 2025
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