The headline is a bit brief. A longer headline would be something like “Starship fails for the second time in a row, in a nearly identical failure mode as the previous flight”.
There was incremental progress throughout the first six flights, but since switching to Ship version 2, they’ve had difficulties with harmonic oscillations damaging the propellant plumbing.
Flight 1: Made it off the pad.
Flight 2: Made it to staging.
Flight 3: Made it to reentry.
Flight 4: Made it to splashdown.
Flight 5: First booster catch.
Flight 6: First zero-g raptor relight.
Flight 7 and 8: Successful booster catches, ship RUD on ascent.
The headline is a bit brief. A longer headline would be something like “Starship fails for the second time in a row, in a nearly identical failure mode as the previous flight”.
There was incremental progress throughout the first six flights, but since switching to Ship version 2, they’ve had difficulties with harmonic oscillations damaging the propellant plumbing.