SpaceX shares Starship Flight 7 recap – What went wrong?

SpaceX shared its recap video of the Starship Flight 7 launch on its YouTube channel Monday evening. The company also shared a blog post detailing the cause of the failure. This usually takes place once the team finishes the data review of the mission and is ready to launch its next Starship, which will be Flight 8 no earlier than Friday.

Starship Flight 7 lifted off on January 16 from Starbase, Texas, a soon-to-be incorporated city in Cameron County. This flight would be another suborbital flight like the six that came before it, but Flight 7 was also the first Block 2 Starship design with new systems to test.

These included: new propellant system, new heat shield design, potentially new heat shield tile designs, deployment of dummy Starlink satellites, and another catch attempt of its booster.

The only item that was able to be tested during Flight 7 was the booster catch, successfully coming to rest on the two catch arms attached to the launch tower. A major achievement for the program to show it can be done more than once.

Advertisement - scroll for more content

Ship 33, the Block 2 ship assigned to this mission, was supposed to splash down in the Indian Ocean. However, a fire began in what SpaceX calls the “attic” of the engine compartment and led to premature engine shutdowns and loss of the vehicle about eight minutes into flight.

In a blog post, SpaceX states the fire was caused by greater than expected vibrations during ascent which damaged the propellant system, springing leaks into the attic area. SpaceX states it has remedied the issue and tested the system in a long duration static fire of Ship 34.

While it seems like SpaceX understands the failure and is ready to reattempt the mission with Flight 8, as of publication, the FAA has not announced the closure of Flight 7’s mishap investigation. This is a requirement before the FAA will approve Flight 8 for launch.

The investigation is led by SpaceX, so it’s likely that it is complete and now just requires some paperwork to be filed and signed off on by the FAA.

However, it now seems that the Friday launch date for Starship is more likely, now that SpaceX has confirmed it.