In 10 pictures, what happened with Elon Musk’s Starship before explosion

SpaceX launched its ninth Starship-Super Heavy test flight (IFT-9) on May 27, 2025, using Ship 35 and Booster 14-2.

This flight marked the first time a flight-proven Super Heavy booster was reused, advancing SpaceX’s reusability goals.

Liftoff and ascent were nominal, with all 33 Raptor engines on Super Heavy and all six on Starship performing as planned during initial phases.

After stage separation, the Super Heavy booster attempted a steeper, more challenging descent to gather aerodynamic data, but exploded over the Gulf of Mexico during its landing burn.

Starship Ship 35 reached its planned orbital velocity, a first for the V2 variant, but suffered a propellant leak and loss of attitude control mid-flight.

The planned deployment of eight Starlink simulator satellites failed when the payload door malfunctioned and did not open.

Due to attitude control loss, SpaceX could not perform a planned in-space Raptor engine relight test.

Ship 35 began tumbling and experienced thermal damage on reentry, ultimately losing telemetry and being passivated (safed) by its onboard computers.

Despite the setbacks, SpaceX gathered valuable data on booster reusability and high-angle descent, informing future Starship development and test flights.