Jan 17, 2025 11:07 AM CST 1 minute & 15 seconds read time TL;DR: SpaceX completed its 7th test flight of Starship, the world's largest rocket, from Starbase, Texas. The Super Heavy booster was successfully launched and caught, but communication with Starship was lost eight and a half minutes into the flight. A fire led to a "rapid unscheduled disassembly." SpaceX has just wrapped up its 7th test flight of the world's largest and most powerful rocket, Starship, with the company once again proving its ingenuity in being able to launch and catch the 200-foot-tall booster called Super Heavy. The launch took place from Starbase, located in Boca Chica, Texas, and marked the first Starship flight of 2025. As always, SpaceX set very ambitious goals for Flight 7 and explained in a recent blog post on its website that it planned to repeat the success of its previous flight, where it caught Super Heavy on the Mechazilla launch tower. SpaceX achieved that, but, unfortunately, there was a slight hiccup as Starship, or Ship, had communications severed approximately eight and a half minutes after flight was engaged. Despite the wireless data transmission severance, Starship still managed to light all six Raptor engines successfully and stayed within its designated launch corridor. SpaceX explained in an update on its website that initial data indicates a fire developed in the aft section of the ship, which resulted in SpaceX engaging in a process called "rapid unscheduled disassembly," or boom. "It successfully separated from the Super Heavy booster, but during that ascent phase, a couple of the engines dropped out, and then shortly thereafter, we lost communication with the vehicle," SpaceX's Kate Tice said during the stream. "We are assuming that we have lost the ship." So, what happened? At the time of reporting SpaceX isn't exactly sure why Starship failed its mission, but what we do know is this version of Starship featured major design changes aimed at increasing its reliability and performance. Best Deals: MSI Stealth 18 AI Studio 18" 240Hz QHD+ Gaming Laptop Today