Tag: Upper Stage

SpaceX Grounds Falcon 9 After Upper Stage Deorbit Issue

SpaceX has temporarily grounded its Falcon 9 rocket after an upper stage failed to deorbit as planned during a Feb. 2 launch. As SPACE reports, “‘Teams are reviewing data to determine root cause and corrective actions before returning to flight,’ SpaceX said via X on Monday evening, in a post that announced the rocket’s grounding.”
Full Story (SPACE)

SpaceX Starship Upper Stage Explodes While Being Prepped for Next Engine Test Firing

CBS News reports a SpaceX Starship upper stage exploded in a spectacular conflagration during ramp-up to an expected engine test firing at the company’s Starbase manufacturing facility on the Texas Gulf Coast late Wednesday, destroying the rocket in what appears to be a major setback for the Super Heavy-Starship vehicle Elon Musk says is critical to the company’s future. “Video from LabPadre, a company that monitors SpaceX activities at Starbase, showed the Starship suddenly exploding in a huge fireball just after 11 p.m. CDT, 10 to 15 minutes before the anticipated engine test firing,” sending flaming debris shooting away into the overnight sky from a churning fireball that engulfed the test stand.
Full Story (CBS News)



 Video

SpaceX’s Starship explodes at its test site on June 18, 2025
(Spaceflight Now; YouTube)

Mishap Causes SpaceX to Reexamine Starship’s Upper Stage

Aviation Week reports SpaceX’s “effort to demonstrate payload deployment, land its upper stage and potentially achieve spaceship-to-spaceship fuel transfer this year had an inauspicious start when the Starship system suffered a setback during the Jan. 16 flight. Minutes after launch, the Block 2 upper stage broke up when a fire developed in the aft section.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)

 

 

 

 

Video

A SpaceX Starship rocket exploded shortly after launching on its seventh test flight.
(Brut India; YouTube)

Blue Origin Conducts Hot Fire Test on New Glenn’s Upper Stage

Aviation Week reports, “Blue Origin on Sept. 23 conducted a 15-sec. hot fire of the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen-fueled upper stage for its first New Glenn rocket, in what the company called a critical milestone on the road to flight. The static test fire at Space Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral SFS marked Blue Origin’s first fueling of a New Glenn rocket stage with flight propellants, and the first engine burn of an integrated flight stage.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)