— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 16, 2025 While the booster succeeded in its mission, the same couldn’t be said for the upper stage. An unspecified anomaly resulted in the loss of the vehicle during ascent, preventing SpaceX from achieving several key objectives for the mission, including the deployment of mock Starlink satellites. Starship failed prior to the 12-minute mark, with its final telemetry showing a speed of 13,246 miles per hour (21,317 kilometers per hour) and an altitude of 91 miles (146 kilometers). The upper stage used for this mission—the seventh Starship flight test—featured an upgraded design. It’s the first upper stage failure since the program’s early days of fully integrated Starship tests. The upper stage, with its design tweaks, meant SpaceX was essentially dealing with a new kind of vehicle, with systems interacting with each other for the first time. According to the SpaceX broadcast, “a couple of engines dropped out” before communications were lost with the vehicle, which appears to have exploded. SpaceX will likely disclose a reason for the failure in the coming days or weeks, but needless to say, the company will learn from this setback. It’s what SpaceX does—treating failures as incremental stepping stones toward eventual success. “Starship 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,” the company explained in a tweet. “With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve Starship’s reliability.” Unconfirmed photos showed the upper stage falling back to Earth in pieces, leaving bright, colorful streaks in its wake. RUD of the century tbh. pic.twitter.com/XCbFxtO2wE