SpaceX reveals ascent burn failure caused Ship 34 loss during Starship Flight 8

SpaceX has officially published a statement about the ship 34 loss during the Starship Flight Test 8 launched on March 6, 2025 from Starbase, Texas. The rocket maker confirmed that the ascent burn failure in space caused a RUD and then lost telemetry.

To recap, the ship successfully lifted off from the launch pad with its booster’s 33 Raptor engines igniting at full power. The company then performed a hot-staging, at the same time, the ship fired its 6 Rator engines as the booster made its way back to the Earth after the flight director’s GO for tower catch.

The ship’s flight trajectory was nominal as it inserted into the sub-orbit. The ship continued its ascent until 8:05 minutes in the flight time at 146 km altitude and lost one sea level and two vacuum engines, followed by another vacuum engine. Then the ship started rotating and lost the altitude control.

The live stream showed the ship’s rotation as the ship’s onboard camera kept on connecting and disconnecting with the Starlink communication. Later on, many X users posted footage of the ship’s debris falling off from the sky.

Raptor engine failure and altitude control loss during Starship Flight 8 ship ascent burn (Source – SpaceX)

Read the full SpaceX statement below.

“During Starship’s ascent burn, the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly and contact was lost. Our team immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses.

We will review the data from today’s flight test to better understand the root cause. As always, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will offer additional lessons to improve Starship’s reliability,” wrote SpaceX on X.

The company will publish a detailed statement with a better root cause of the Starship Flight 8 ship loss.