- Tuesday, July 01, 2025
SpaceX’s Starship flew farther than its previous two missions but disintegrated over the Indian Ocean after encountering mid-flight issues. Elon Musk remains optimistic, promising more frequent launches in the coming weeks.
By: Vibhuti Pathak
SpaceX’s ambitious Starship rocket broke apart over the Indian Ocean during its third test flight on Tuesday, in what CEO Elon Musk described as another critical learning experience despite the dramatic failure.
The massive spacecraft, central to Musk’s long-term vision of human colonization of Mars, managed to fly farther than its previous two attempts before spinning out of control and disintegrating during reentry.
The Starship lifted off successfully at 6:36 PM local time from SpaceX’s launch facility near the newly declared city of Starbase, Texas. The launch drew a crowd of space enthusiasts to nearby South Padre Island, many hoping to witness history in the making.
Among them was Australian Piers Dawson, who said he was “obsessed” with the rocket and planned his family’s U.S. vacation around the event.
However, signs of trouble emerged early in the flight when the first-stage Super Heavy booster exploded instead of executing its planned splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
The upper-stage Starship continued its trajectory but soon began leaking and spinning out of control after failing to open its bay doors to deploy a test payload of simulated Starlink satellites.
SpaceX confirmed the vehicle’s disintegration using a now-familiar euphemism: “Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly.” Despite the setback, the company emphasized the progress made in the mission and pledged to incorporate the lessons learned into future launches.
“The SpaceX team is the best space team that has ever been assembled on the face of the Earth, by far. One day, we will indeed occupy Mars.”
— Elon Musk pic.twitter.com/vtVIkseYj7
— Dima Zeniuk (@DimaZeniuk) May 28, 2025
Elon Musk, spotted at Starbase’s ground control wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with “Occupy Mars,” remained undeterred. He posted on X (formerly Twitter) that SpaceX plans to increase the pace of Starship launches, aiming for a new flight every three to four weeks. However, he did not confirm whether a planned livestream presentation on Mars colonization would still proceed.
This was the third integrated flight test for Starship, which previously faced dramatic failures during its January and March launches. Both those attempts ended in explosions shortly after liftoff, scattering debris across parts of the Caribbean and affecting nearby air traffic. In response, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) expanded debris hazard zones for the latest launch.
The FAA had only just granted approval for Tuesday’s mission, concluding a mishap investigation that had grounded Starship for nearly two months. The cautious greenlight was short-lived as the spacecraft’s issues unfolded mid-flight, culminating in its disintegration over the Indian Ocean.
Despite the repeated failures, fans and experts alike expressed admiration for the bold engineering involved. Joshua Wingate, a tech entrepreneur from Austin, reflected positively: “In science, there’s never a failure—you learn everything from every single test. That was still super exciting to see.”
As SpaceX continues refining the world’s most powerful launch vehicle, each test flight—successful or not—brings it a step closer to realizing Musk’s interplanetary ambitions. For now, though, the road to Mars remains as turbulent as it is thrilling.
