So far, the consequences of these failures have not been lethal. But space remains a difficult, hazardous game. Reentering debris from a Falcon 9 upper stage could have struck someone in Poland. God forbid, a second stage could fail early in a crewed mission.

SpaceX made multiple changes in the wake of a January Starship failure, only to suffer a second straight vehicle breakup Thursday.

The new version of Starship will be tested again in four to six weeks. A third consecutive failure could indicate fundamental problems with the updated design.

For a company that prides itself on pushing the boundaries in space exploration, SpaceX just hit another major roadblock—literally. The highly anticipated test flight of its Starship mega rocket ended in disaster (again) after controllers lost contact with the upper-stage vehicle just minutes into the launch.

SpaceX’s Starship Flight 8 suffered another dramatic failure - but why? Just like Flight 7, the upper stage exploded in space, scattering debris over the Bahamas. What went wrong this time, and what does it mean for future Starship flights?