Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship tumbled out of control during a test flight as the world’s richest man continues to grapple with a wider professional tailspin.
Musk has almost disappeared from the spotlight following a disastrous and ineffective DOGE rollout. After weeks of appearing alongside the president, the 53-year-old has stepped back from government amid plummeting Tesla sales and sinking popularity ratings.
The latest disappointment came when a rocket launched from its Texas facility hit a snag about 30 minutes after liftoff, after initially reaching space intact. When the spacecraft attempted to release its payload into orbit, the door would not fully open, and the vessel started to spin out of control. Footage streamed by SpaceX showed an intense light show as the spinning ship vented its propellant.
SpaceX later confirmed on X that the ship underwent a “rapid unscheduled disassembly”-- in other words, it blew up. SpaceX used the same hilarious terminology back in January and March when SpaceX test flights also ended in explosions.
The latest fail follows a string of stumbles across Musk’s empire. His electric car company, Tesla, has reported sales slumps in several major markets. Tesla registrations in Europe halved year-on-year last month amid political backlash over his ties to President Donald Trump and rising sales for competitors. Musk’s popularity, meanwhile, plummeted to a net favorability -13.8 percent in April.
Musk has also bashed Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which passed the House last week, putting him on a collision course with the president. Musk said in an interview with CBS, set to air Sunday, that he was “disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing.”
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