Starship's Seventh Flight Test: Super Heavy Booster Caught by Tower for a Second Time as Ship Is Lost About Eight and a Half Minutes After Liftoff
On January 16, 2025, SpaceX's Starship completed its seventh integrated flight test from Starbase in Cameron County, Texas. It was Starship's first flight test of 2025, aiming to repeat the previous success of launching and catching the world's most powerful launch vehicle while putting a redesigned and upgraded Starship through a rigorous set of flight demonstrations.
Starship lifted off at 4:37 p.m. Central Time, with all 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy booster and the ship powering a nominal ascent. Following a successful hot-stage separation, the booster transitioned to its boostback burn, relighting 12 of the planned 13 Raptor engines to begin its return to the launch site.
The booster then relit all 13 planned middle-ring and center Raptor engines for its landing burn — including the engine that had not relit for the boostback burn — slowed down and maneuvered itself to the launch and catch tower arms, resulting in the second successful catch of a Super Heavy booster.
The ship, however, did not complete its flight. After stage separation, the Starship upper stage lit all six of its Raptor engines and performed its ascent burn to space, but before the burn was complete, telemetry was lost with the vehicle after approximately eight and a half minutes of flight. SpaceX said initial data indicated a fire developed in the aft section of the ship, leading to a rapid unscheduled disassembly.
SpaceX said Starship flew within its designated launch corridor, as all U.S. launches do to safeguard the public on the ground, on water and in the air, and that any surviving debris would have fallen within areas identified in pre-flight analysis shared in advance with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and air traffic controllers. The company said it was working closely with the government of Turks and Caicos and the United Kingdom on recovery and cleanup, that there were no hazardous materials in the debris, and that no significant impacts to marine species or water quality were expected.
SpaceX said a data review was already under way, and that it would conduct a thorough investigation in coordination with the FAA, determine the root cause and implement corrective actions on future flight tests. The ship and booster for the eighth flight test, it said, were already built and going through prelaunch testing.
(Source: SpaceX)
Source: SpaceX
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：星舰飞船与超重型助推器在得克萨斯州星舰基地发射台全栈竖立（资料图，2023年4月摄）。（Jenny Hautmann 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons） / Photo: The Starship vehicle and Super Heavy booster stacked on the orbital launch mount at Starbase, Texas (file photo, April 2023). (Jenny Hautmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
