How many failed or crashed space x flights
Executive summary
SpaceX’s overall flight record is split between an extraordinarily reliable workhorse — the Falcon 9 family — and a bumpy, high-risk development program for the much larger Starship; Falcon 9 shows only a handful of documented failures across nearly 600 flights, while Starship has suffered multiple catastrophic test-flight failures during its rapid test campaign [1] [2] [3]. Counting strictly by the reporting available, Falcon 9/Falcon Heavy experienced two in‑flight mission failures, one pre‑flight loss, and one partial failure out of 598 launches, while Starship has recorded at least six failed integrated test flights by mid‑2025 with several recent consecutive breakups drawing regulatory and public scrutiny [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. Falcon family: rare failures amid high cadence
The Falcon 9/Falcon Heavy family had been launched 598 times as of January 12, 2026, with 595 full mission successes, two mission failures during flight, one mission failure before launch (an on‑pad static fire anomaly), and one partial failure where a secondary payload reached a lower‑than‑planned orbit — a reliability rate cited at roughly 99.5 percent [1] [2]. Those in‑flight failures include the well‑documented CRS‑7 breakup in June 2015, which an independent NASA investigation traced to a failed strut and identified it as a design and materials screening error [1]. The narrow tally of Falcon family failures across hundreds of flights underpins why many analysts still call Falcon 9 one of the most reliable orbital rockets in operation [1] [2].
2. Starship: test program marked by repeated catastrophic breakups
SpaceX’s Starship integrated test program has faced a string of dramatic failures: multiple recent flights ended in rapid unscheduled disassembly or breakups, with reporting indicating at least six failed Starship flights by June 2025 and additional high‑profile losses thereafter [3]. News outlets documented consecutive upper‑stage breakups — for example, Flight 8 and Flight 9 were cut short by engine shutdowns or hardware glitches that caused the vehicles to break apart — and one report described Flight 9 as the program’s third consecutive fiery failure, underscoring a streak of destructive test outcomes [5] [6] [4].
3. How the tally adds up and why counts differ in coverage
When answering “how many failed or crashed SpaceX flights,” the numbers depend on scope: if counting Falcon 9/Falcon Heavy operational launches, the canonical summary is four non‑full successes (two in‑flight failures, one pre‑flight loss, one partial) out of 598 attempts as recorded in launch lists [1] [2]. If adding Starship integrated test flights, the failure count rises substantially: Starship had at least six documented catastrophic test failures by mid‑2025 and continued to experience breakups on subsequent numbered flights, so any total that includes Starship must reflect those multiple losses reported in 2024–2025 [3] [4] [5].
4. Context, consequences and competing narratives
The discrepancy in public perception — “near‑perfect” Falcon reliability versus “dubious” Starship reliability — has real consequences: regulators and aviation groups have flagged Starship’s flight failures as safety hazards for commercial air traffic and pressed the FAA and SpaceX over flight‑path risk and debris close calls, while SpaceX frames Starship’s explosive test failures as expected learning in an experimental development cadence [7] [8] [3]. Coverage therefore often conflates SpaceX’s operational record with its developmental test program; careful accounting separates the Falcon family’s long record of success from Starship’s aggressively iterative — and failure‑prone — test campaign [1] [3].
5. Limitations of available reporting
Public summaries and media reports cited here enumerate specific Falcon and Starship incidents, but comprehensive, single‑source official tallies that combine all vehicle types and classify “failures” in a uniform way are not provided in the supplied reporting; therefore the most accurate statement supported by the sources is: Falcon 9/Falcon Heavy — four non‑full successes out of 598 launches (two in‑flight, one pre‑flight, one partial) — and Starship — at least six failed integrated flights by mid‑2025 with several more high‑profile breakups reported thereafter [1] [2] [3] [4] [5].