updates
Flight 7 catch and attic fire
On February 24, 2025, SpaceX said Flight 7 caught the booster a second time and lost the ship after a harmonic response and an attic fire.
Topics: space-civilization starship
This page is an original Muskularity summary. It does not republish SpaceX’s full post. Figures are the company’s statements on the cited date unless another primary link is named.
Summary
Flight 7 lifted off at 4:37 p.m. CT on January 16, 2025. All 33 booster engines completed ascent. The ship lit six engines for hot-staging. Boostback lit 12 of 13 engines; one middle-ring engine aborted on a low-power igniter, a problem SpaceX said an igniter upgrade would address. The landing burn lit all 13 planned engines, including the one that had missed boostback, and the booster was caught. SpaceX called it the second catch.
The ship flew the expected path for about two minutes, then a flash near a vacuum Raptor was followed by a pressure rise in the unpressurized “attic” between the oxygen tank and the aft heat shield. About two minutes later another flash and a sustained fire shut down all but one engine. Last telemetry was just over eight minutes and 20 seconds after liftoff. The ship broke up about three minutes after contact was lost. SpaceX said post-flight analysis showed the autonomous flight-safety system did trigger, inside flight-termination expectations.
The probable cause given: a harmonic response several times stronger than ground tests, stressing propulsion hardware, with leaks that overwhelmed the attic vents and fed the fire. Debris stayed in the planned area. SpaceX said it worked with Turks and Caicos and the United Kingdom on cleanup, and that no hazardous materials and no significant marine impacts were expected. A 60-second static fire of the next ship tested three vacuum-engine feedline configurations. Changes: feedline hardware, propellant temperatures, a new thrust target, more attic vents, and a nitrogen purge. Raptor 3 is named as the version that shrinks the attic and removes most of the joints that can leak into it.
Key facts
| Fact | Label |
|---|---|
| Liftoff January 16, 2025, 4:37 p.m. CT; second booster catch | Company flight report |
| Ship lost after an attic fire; last data just past 8 minutes 20 seconds | Company investigation finding |
| Probable cause: a stronger-than-tested harmonic response and propellant leaks | Company investigation finding |
| Cleanup coordinated with Turks and Caicos and the United Kingdom | Company account |
Why it matters
The catch-and-lose-the-ship pattern starts in the public record here and repeats on Flight 8. The attic, specifically, is the volume V3 says it is deleting.
On this site
Sources
- SpaceX update, February 24, 2025 — Grade A, company mishap report
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