SpaceX’s Starship exploded over the Indian Ocean in a fiery failure, delivering another setback to Elon Musk’s ambitious plan to colonize Mars. The 403-foot rocket – the largest and most powerful ever built – launched at 6:36 pm CDT Tuesday from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in southern Texas, near a village recently voted to become a city, also named Starbase.

The mission aimed to deploy eight Starlink satellite simulators and test the vehicle’s reentry system by removing 100 heat-shield tiles, according to Fox News. Although launch and initial ascent went smoothly, the Super Heavy booster suffered a catastrophic failure when its engines reignited for splashdown. SpaceX confirmed the loss of the booster but noted the failure was expected given the extreme test conditions.

Meanwhile, the Starship upper stage achieved its planned suborbital trajectory after a seemingly flawless run from its six engines. However, minutes later, a door on the side of the rocket failed to open, preventing the deployment of simulated Starlink satellites.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been notified and will investigate the failure and its potential impact on future launches. ‘The FAA is aware an anomaly occurred during the SpaceX Starship Flight 9 mission that launched on Tuesday, May 27, from Starbase, Texas, and is actively working with SpaceX on the event. There are no reports of public injury or damage to public property at this time,’ the agency said. Meanwhile, the SpaceX CEO highlighted improvements from previous flights.

‘Starship made it to the scheduled ship engine cutoff, so big improvement over last flight! Also, no significant loss of heat shield tiles during ascent,’ Musk posted on X following the flight. The Tuesday evening test marked the first reuse of a Super Heavy booster, previously flown in January. For the mission, SpaceX intentionally disabled one of the booster’s center engines during descent to test performance under off-nominal conditions. The booster however was not recovered and engineers opted not to attempt a catch and instead focused on data collection during the steep descent.

Despite missing some objectives and yet another setback to Musk’s dream of interplanetary colonization, the aerospace company emphasized the value of the flight. ‘With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s test will help us improve Starship’s reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multi-planetary,’ the company said. Musk added, ‘Launch cadence for the next 3 flights will be faster – approximately one every 3 to 4 weeks.’

The Starship’s failure is the latest in a series of setbacks for the program, which has faced multiple test failures, including an aborted flight in April. Nevertheless, SpaceX remains committed to rapid iteration and development. Recently, the FAA approved an increase in Starship launches from five to 25 annually, determining the expanded schedule would not cause significant environmental harm, according to AFP.

The FAA’s decision overrode objections from conservation groups worried about impacts on sea turtles and shorebirds. While Tuesday’s failure adds to ongoing challenges, SpaceX continues to embrace its ‘fail fast, learn fast’ philosophy. ‘Developmental testing by definition is unpredictable,’ SpaceX stated on its website. ‘But by putting hardware in a flight environment as frequently as possible, we’re able to quickly learn and execute design changes as we seek to bring Starship online as a fully and rapidly reusable vehicle.’ However, no timeline for the next test flight has been announced.