‘Success is uncertain’: Wild footage as Musk’s Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch

Elon Musk’s Starship rocket has exploded just minutes into its seventh test flight, with footage showing streaks lighting up the sky.

Elon Musk’s Starship rocket has exploded just minutes into its seventh test flight, sending bright orange debris raining down over the Caribbean.

Footage shared to X shows the rocket, which launched from the Boca Chica, southern Texas, on Thursday, burning up and streaking across the sky in the Turks and Caicos Islands as it reinterred the atmosphere.

“Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!” Mr Musk wrote on his social media platform alongside footage.

Musk’s Starship rocket explodes after launch. Picture: X/@elonmusk

Musk’s Starship rocket explodes after launch. Picture: X/@elonmusk

SpaceX said the rocket – the largest and most powerful rocket in the world – “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,” it wrote on X.

As the rocket disintegrated in the sky, nearby air traffic was forced to reroute away from the area.

The rocket was supposed to soar across The Gulf of Mexico from Texas and lap the Earth, with 10 dummy satellites to practice releasing.

But while the rocket’s booster performed flawlessly – making a successful return and being caught between two giant mechanical arms at the launch pad – the rocket itself vanished.

Crews lost contact with the Starship, with the company’s livestream host confirming: “At this point in time, we can confirm we did lose the ship.”

“It looks like we lost contact a little under eight and a half minutes into the flight.”

The last data received from Starship indicated the rocket had reached an altitude of 90 miles (145km), with a velocity of 13,245 mph (3679.1667 kmph) before contact was lost.

SpaceX spokesman Dan Huot said: “It was great to see a booster come down, but we are obviously bummed out about ship.”

He added that it would take time to analyse the data and determine what went wrong.

The SpaceX Starship took off from Starbase near Boca Chica, Texas, on January 16, 2025, for the Starship Flight 7 test. Picture: SpaceX/AFP

Mr Musk’s space company had hoped this test flight would mark a step forward in its goal to build a fully reusable spacecraft capable of carrying humans to Mars.

He plans to launch actual Starlinks on Starships before moving on to other satellites and, eventually, crews.

The Starship prototype had been heavily modified since its last test flight in November 2023.

SpaceX had also made upgrades to the booster “catch” tower, which had been damaged during the previous test.

– With The Sun

Originally published as ‘Success is uncertain’: Wild footage as Musk’s Starship rocket explodes minutes after launch