Mars Setback: Why Starship of Elon Musk's Space X exploded

 

Mar 7, 2025, 18:21 IST

Elon Musk’s space dreams took another fiery nosedive as SpaceX’s Starship Flight 8 went full Michael Bay, spiraling out of control before exploding in a spectacular mid-air fireball. It was supposed to be another step toward Mars, but instead, it became another cautionary tale of why spaceflight is basically rocket science.

For about ten glorious minutes, things were looking good. The Super Heavy booster nailed its landing like an Olympic gymnast, sliding perfectly into its docking arms (aka the ‘chopsticks’). The crowd cheered. Musk probably smiled. Twitter (sorry, X) was on fire with excitement. Then—four out of six engines quit like overworked interns. The spacecraft started spinning like a confused fidget spinner, and then, in classic SpaceX fashion, it exploded. A "rapid unscheduled disassembly," as they say in the industry.

The Great Engine Mutiny

The first signs of trouble showed up when four of Starship’s six Raptor engines shut down mid-ascent. If you’re trying to send a 400-foot-tall, 5,000-ton rocket into space, losing two-thirds of your engines is… less than ideal.

Some likely suspects behind this engine betrayal:

Fuel Flow Shenanigans – If methane or liquid oxygen didn’t reach the engines properly, they’d shut down faster than a Windows laptop on 1% battery.

Overheating – Raptor engines burn at insane temperatures, and if the cooling systems aren’t working, they’ll tap out.

Combustion Instability – These engines operate at terrifyingly high pressures. If something messes with the combustion process, you’re looking at a premature shutdown—or worse, an explosion.

Either way, when those engines went dark, Starship’s fate was sealed.

The Moment Starship Became a Giant Beyblade

Spaceflight is all about precision—tiny corrections, smooth adjustments. But thrust asymmetry (a fancy way of saying "only some engines are working, and that’s a problem") meant Starship had the aerodynamics of a thrown wrench.

Its guidance system tried its best, but at hypersonic speeds, even a small wobble can turn into a full-blown catastrophe.

At that point, the engineers at SpaceX probably sighed, looked at each other, and thought, "Welp, here we go again."

Spaceflight is all about precision—tiny corrections, smooth adjustments. But thrust asymmetry (a fancy way of saying "only some engines are working, and that’s a problem") meant Starship had the aerodynamics of a thrown wrench.

Its guidance system tried its best, but at hypersonic speeds, even a small wobble can turn into a full-blown catastrophe.

At that point, the engineers at SpaceX probably sighed, looked at each other, and thought, "Welp, here we go again."

SpaceX’s Chaos Is By Design

The thing about SpaceX is—they embrace failure. Other space agencies spend years perfecting a single rocket before testing it. SpaceX? They build, launch, explode, learn, repeat. To them, this was a success because it provided more data to fix the next version. And sure, Flight 8 exploded—but the booster landed perfectly, proving reusability is possible. Next up? Making sure Starship itself survives long enough to actually reach orbit. Musk says Mars is the goal. But before that, they need to get through a flight without an explosion. One thing’s for sure—there will be more fireballs before they get it right.