SpaceX Launches Seventh Spacecraft Test Today – Here’s How You See

On January 17, 2025By Littum

Upper line

SpaceX launched Starship on Thursday for a seventh test flight after weather concerns pushed back an experiment that will include the spacecraft’s first payload insertion test, and while it successfully captured the Super Heavy Booster, SpaceX lost communication with Starship shortly after.

SpaceX’s mega rocket Starship is ready for a test flight from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, … (+) Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Key facts

SpaceX launched the Starship from Boca Chica, Texas, around 5:37 p.m. EST, and the live stream of the launch began around 16.15 at SpaceX’s X account and website.

Starship’s Super Heavy booster is set to recycle one of its 33 engines for the first time, and SpaceX for the second time captured the booster with two mechanical arms, about seven and a half minutes after liftoff (the first time was in the fifth test launch).

Shortly after the capture, however, there was a problem: A SpaceX commentator on the live stream said “we believe we’ve lost the ship during its ascent phase … during that ascent phase a couple of the engines fell out and then shortly after that we lost communication .”

The Starship’s flight was expected to last just over 66 minutes, according to to SpaceX, and was to include several experiments for the spacecraft, including Starship’s first payload deployment test – a set of 10 replica Starlink satellites – and tests for upgrades to the spacecraft’s flight computer, avionics and heat shield.

During Starship’s sixth launch test in November, the spacecraft splashed down in the Indian Ocean, but an attempt to capture its Super Heavy booster was skipped.

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What went wrong with the launch?

SpaceX said it will share more information about what went wrong with the launch in the coming hours and days.

What to look for

SpaceX has requested approval from the FAA to increase the maximum number of annual Starship launches from five to 25. The FAA is expected to rule on the proposal after a public comment period ends on January 17.

Key background

SpaceX has launched Starship six times since the spacecraft’s debut flight in April 2023. SpaceX has been testing Starship to make the spacecraft fully reusable, allowing the ship to carry both cargo and people into space. Starship is considered the largest and most powerful rocket ever developed, standing at nearly 400 feet. The first test lasted only four minutes, and a second test flight in November 2023 lasted eight minutes due to a “rapid unplanned disassembly.” The spacecraft successfully entered Earth’s atmosphere during its fourth test launch in June 2024, with SpaceX maintaining contact with the Starship throughout its flight, and the spacecraft completed its first landing burn about an hour after launch.

Key

Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin successfully launched its New Glenn heavy lift rocket into orbit for the first time on Thursday, although the company failed to recover the rocket’s reusable booster stage. Bezos’ Blue Origin and Musk’s SpaceX have competed in recent years for government contracts and funding to develop a lunar lander for Artemis V, a NASA mission that will return astronauts to the moon in 2029. NASA has said it intends to ask both companies to develop cargo versions of NASA’s manned human landing systems.

Forbes valuation

Musk has a net worth of $424.2 billion, making him the world’s richest person according to our latest estimate. Bezos is the world’s second richest man with a net worth estimated at $236.8 billion.