SpaceX carried out an orbital flight test of the Starship rocket, sharing the live progress from its official YouTube channel. The event had been anticipated for Monday, but a technical issue led to a postponement. During the retry, the countdown paused roughly a minute before liftoff to complete final checks. Soon after, the countdown resumed and the vehicle rose without obvious difficulties, marking a notable moment for spaceflight enthusiasts in the United States, Canada, and beyond.
Approximately three minutes after ignition, the vehicle exhibited unusual oscillations along its flight axis before the stages separated as planned. At 3 minutes and 59 seconds into the flight, the Starship experienced a catastrophic failure and exploded in a dramatic display sure to be analyzed by aerospace teams and observers around North America. The incident provided valuable data for ongoing development as engineers review the performance of both stages under real flight conditions.
Starship is a future-forward, fully reusable, two-stage rocket designed to deliver heavy payloads and crewed missions with the goal of enabling sustained lunar exploration under NASA’s Artemis program in the late 2020s. The vehicle architecture combines a suborbital test pedigree with ambitions for robust reentry and precision landings, aiming to expand access to deep space while supporting scientific, commercial, and exploration objectives across North America and allied space programs. This test flight underscores SpaceX efforts to accelerate capabilities and gather critical insights that will inform subsequent iterations and safety mitigations for future missions.