SpaceX launches seventh Starship test flight

Follow live updates on SpaceX Starship’s seventh test flight.

CNN
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SpaceX’s colossal Starship launch system has just lifted off on its seventh unmanned test flight, with an upgraded version of the megarocket embarking on the program’s most ambitious flight to date.

The starship spacecraft, stacked atop the Super Heavy rocket booster, flew at 5:37 PM ET (4:37 PM local time) Thursday. The rocket booster revved the 33 engines at its base and sent a loud roar across Starbase, the SpaceX launch site near Brownsville, Texas.

For the first time, one of those 33 Raptor engines has been in space before: SpaceX said it reused an engine recovered from the Super Heavy booster flown during the company’s fifth test flight in October.

Next, as the Super Heavy rocket booster—the lower section or first stage of the Starship system—burned through most of its fuel, SpaceX guided the Super Heavy back to a precise landing at the launch site after it separated from the Starship spacecraft.

The starship ignited its own engines and began to soar through space.

The company steered the Super Heavy booster directly into the “chopsticks,” the metal arms of the “Mechazilla,” which is SpaceX’s name for the launch tower, which also serves as a structural mechanism to catch rocket parts as they blaze back down from the sky after launch.

SpaceX had only successfully recovered a Super Heavy booster after launch once before, during the fifth fully integrated Starship test flight in October 2024.

The maneuver sent a deafening sonic boom ringing across the landing site, which is near the popular Texas tourist destination of South Padre Island.

While the Super Heavy made its landing attempt, the Starship spacecraft, or upper stage, was expected to continue propelling itself through space, reaching speeds nearly fast enough to enter Earth orbit.

But the Starship spacecraft has stopped providing telemetry, suggesting the spacecraft may have been lost.

“We expected the ship’s engine to cut off about 40 seconds ago,” SpaceX spokesman Dan Huot said on the live stream during a crucial part of the ascent phase. “We saw some of those engines start to go out before that time. And so right now we’re, we’re just standing by trying to get the latest word on where we’re at.”

The “new generation” Starship flying on Thursday’s mission has some significant upgrades from previous versions, according to SpaceX. The changes include additional fuel capacity, which can allow the Starship’s engines to burn longer and generate more speed.

The vehicle is also equipped with a more powerful flight computer, revamped navigation and new antennas that SpaceX hopes will allow Starship to better communicate with the company’s space-based internet network, Starlink.

Crucially, SpaceX is also testing for the first time how the Starship vehicle can deploy satellites. On board the spacecraft are 10 dummy payloads roughly the same size and weight as SpaceX’s next-generation Starlink satellites.

About 17 minutes into the mission, SpaceX will deploy the fake satellites as part of a demonstration. Like Starship, the demo’s payload is not expected to reach orbit. Rather, they will be on a suborbital orbit similar to Starship, which guarantees they will be discarded in the ocean, according to the company.

About an hour after liftoff, the Starship spacecraft is expected to make a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The maneuver is expected to test how the Starship can be recovered after future flights. However, as has been the case with the last few test missions, the vehicle will be scrapped and left for a watery ditch.

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