By Micah Maidenberg

SpaceX launched another Starship rocket Thursday but lost the vehicle's spacecraft not long after lift-off, the second such setback in a row for Elon Musk's space company.

Shortly after launch, the company lost contact with the spacecraft, according to a SpaceX livestream. One company commentator said that the vehicle had gone into a spin, and measures were being put into place to guard against potential debris.

SpaceX did successfully recapture the rocket's booster, which navigated to rest between what the company calls massive "chopstick" arms on the launchpad. It was the third time SpaceX was able to guide down the booster, critical to the company's longer-range ambitions to regularly launch the rockets.

The roughly 400-foot tall experimental rocket blasted off from a SpaceX complex east of Brownsville, Texas, around 6:30 p.m. ET. Starship has two stages: a booster and a spacecraft that is stacked on top of the booster for liftoff. The spacecraft separates from the booster shortly after launch.

In January, SpaceX suffered a similar setback when a Starship spacecraft blew up not long after lift-off, prompting the Federal Aviation Administration to implement airspace restrictions to guard against planes getting hit by debris.

No aircraft were struck, but some debris landed on Turks and Caicos, generating complaints from island residents who reported finding rocket components washing ashore.

The FAA, which oversees private U.S. rocket launches, gave SpaceX permission to conduct Thursday's flight while the company continues investigating the January explosion.

The FAA didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Thursday's launch marked the eighth time SpaceX has launched the Starship rocket since the company started testing the vehicle in flight in April 2023.

SpaceX has said that during the January launch, hardware on the spacecraft's propulsion system faced more intense stress than expected and fires broke out in a section of the vehicle.

The government for Turks and Caicos said in a recent statement that clean-up activities are continuing, and asked residents to report debris locations.

Because of the problem with Thursday's flight, SpaceX wasn't able to attempt other tests and objectives for the mission, such as deploying four devices designed to simulate satellites SpaceX plans to use in its Starlink satellite-internet network.

The company had aimed to fly the Starship spacecraft through space, ahead of a landing in the Indian Ocean a little over an hour after launch.

Write to Micah Maidenberg at micah.maidenberg@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 06, 2025 19:05 ET (00:05 GMT)

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