Austin American-Statesman SpaceX's Starship conducted its ninth test flight Tuesday evening, successfully surpassing the outcomes of two prior test flights that ended in explosions. However, the company lost control of the spacecraft midway through its journey. The rocket, launched from Starbase around 6:37 p.m. CST, managed to reach space — a milestone that eluded the seventh and eighth test flights as both exploded within 10 minutes after liftoff. But midway through the flight, a propellant leak sent the spacecraft into an uncontrollable spin, causing it to break apart when it re-entered Earth's atmosphere. The debris fell into the Indian Ocean away from inhabited areas. SpaceX was unable to conduct several tests it had planned during the flight, such as deploying simulators of the next-generation Starlink satellites and assessing improvements to the heat shield tiles. Prior to the launch, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk highlighted the importance of testing the spacecraft’s re-entry, as the heat shield tiles are designed to withstand extreme atmospheric re-entry temperatures. However, the spacecraft's loss of control resulted in the failure to gather any data on the tiles' performance. During Tuesday's launch, SpaceX reused the Super Heavy booster from its seventh Starship flight. The booster successfully propelled the Starship rocket into space, executed a flip, and was set to re-enter Earth's atmosphere for a landing test in the Gulf of Mexico. However, it exploded before the landing test could occur. SpaceX stated it was conducting various tests to "push" the booster's performance, suggesting the outcome was not a complete failure. The Federal Aviation Administration approved Tuesday's launch last week, saying that SpaceX had addressed the causes of the earlier failures and did not pose a danger to the public. Musk described Tuesday's flight as a "big improvement over last flight" in a post on his social media platform, X. According to him, Starship did not lose a significant number of heat shield tiles as it ascended into space. “Leaks caused loss of main tank pressure during the coast and re-entry phase. Lot of good data to review,” Musk said. Seventh and eighth Starship flights end in explosions Starships’ seventh and eighth test flights both failed, unable to repeat the successes of earlier test flights. SpaceX’s seventh flight test of its Starship rocket ended when the upper-stage vehicle exploded during ascent. Turks and Caicos residents reported finding pieces on roads and beaches, and a car was reportedly damaged in the accident.