Following the explosive failure of the Starship megarocket’s January 16 test flight, residents of the British territory were left with debris-strewn roads and beaches.
Starbase is an industrial installation built by SpaceX to fabricate and test a number of the company’s rocket types. The area around it is a unique and delicate ecosystem that includes estuaries and coastal grasslands, mud flats and more, where falcons, hawks, ravens, gulls and songbirds live.
SpaceX Starship 25 and Super Heavy booster 9 launched to orbit from the Starbase facility in South Texas. Following the launch, the booster experienced a Rapid Unplanned Disassembly (RUD). Credit: Spa
Some Hawaiians don’t like the idea of SpaceX dropping Starship rockets in the Pacific Ocean surrounding the islands.
The uncrewed Starship spacecraft was apparently destroyed during its first flight launch of 2025 that blasted off from south Texas.
Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, pulled off a daring booster catch on its most ambitious test flight yet, but the spacecraft was lost. Follow for the latest news.
"Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly during its ascent burn. Teams will continue to review data from today's flight test to better understand root cause. With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve Starship’s reliability," it read.
The spacecraft was supposed to soar across the Gulf of Mexico on a near loop around the world. The booster was successfully caught at the launchpad.
SpaceX has traced the likely cause of the explosion that destroyed its Starship vehicle during its Jan. 16 test flight to a leak of liquid oxygen or liquid methane.
Commercial airlines had to divert or delay their flights to avoid debris from the SpaceX Starship spacecraft that exploded Thursday during a flight test.
The seventh test flight of SpaceX's Starship has successfully taken off from Boca Chica, Texas. Newsweek's live blog is closed.
Before the loss, SpaceX for the second time used giant mechanical arms to catch the booster back at the pad minutes after liftoff from Texas. The descending booster hovered over the launch pad ...