SpaceX founder briefs about on Starship flight 9’s second stage attitude loss

SpaceX Founder and CEO, Elon Musk, has briefed everyone on Starship Flight 9’s second stage attitude loss prior to the Earth’s re-entry phase and the cause of its demise.

Launched from Starbase, Texas, the ship maintained its nominal trajectory and achieved orbit insertion. Musk confirmed that the ship lost only a few heat shield tiles during the ascent, which completed with a success after engine cutoff.

Similar to previous missions, a significant number of tiles have been removed from Starship to stress-test vulnerable areas across the vehicle during reentry. Multiple metallic tile options, including one with active cooling, will test alternative materials for protecting Starship during reentry.

9th Starship Test Flight lifted off from Starbase, Texas (Source – SpaceX)

The ship had various other improvements, including the sides of the vehicle, which had functional catch fittings to test their thermal and structural performance. The flight’s reentry profile was designed to intentionally stress the structural limits of the upper stage’s rear flaps while at the point of the maximum entry dynamic pressure.

Despite completing the suborbital coasting, the ship didn’t attempt Starlink simulators deployment for an unknown reason. At about 30 minutes in the mission, the ship lost attitude control and began rolling before the reentry phase. And this also prohibited SpaceX from completing a single Raptor engine relight.

Musk wrote on X that leaks caused the loss of main tank pressure during the coast and re-entry phase. Amid losing attitude control, the ship re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere and experienced the scorching heat for more than 10 minutes before finally cutting contact with the mission control.

SpaceX has yet to share a detailed review of the Starship Flight 9.