‘That’s a lot of wasteful spending. Where’s DOGE?’: Elon Musk burns money with second exploding Starship this year

Elon Musk’s latest Starship launch ended in a fiery explosion over the Caribbean with the rocket plummeting to the ground mere minutes after it launched from Texas yesterday evening, (kind of like how the Tesla stock is plummeting right now).

The test flight was an attempt to deploy mock satellites as a part of Musk’s Mars rocket program, according to APNews. The event was live-streamed, although that didn’t last long, as the stream showed the upper stage of the Starship spiraling out of control while engines shut down. It was then confirmed by SpaceX that contact with the ship had been lost.

Just saw Starship 8 blow up from our flight @elonmusk @SpaceX pic.twitter.com/RyDzUtXzpo

— DegenZee (@Degen_Zee) March 7, 2025

Footage of the wrecked ship breaking up as it falls back to Earth are already being plastered all over X in what must be an embarrassing moment for Musk. Although I will admit, for a fiery disaster, it does look rather pretty.

This is the second time in just over a month

Although it was a test launch, this is the second time a SpaceX launch has ended in a fiery disaster this year alone. What’s worse is that the exact same thing happened during the previous test launch. Addressing the failed mission, flight commentator Dan Huot said, “Unfortunately this happened last time too, so we’ve got some practice now,” …but I must ask, practice at what? Wasting money, blowing up rockets? What was learned from this explosion that was missed in the last one?

Elon Musk is not being very efficient, someone call DOGE

The launch was a massive waste of money, resources, and time. And yes, taxpayer dollars also went into this failed launch (it’s part of NASAs Artemis program). That means every time Musk does a test launch, he’s essentially gambling with money from American citizens — and let’s just say he’s been on a bit of a losing streak. Obviously, people are getting sick of Musk’s seeming nonchalance about his apparent wastefulness, and they’ve taken to X to complain.

Welp.

They lost altitude control and contact with Starship.

Another failed launch from Elon Musk and SpaceX.

More taxpayer funds down the drain. pic.twitter.com/LtGXfhqvSM

— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) March 6, 2025

Right now, Musk’s projects are just looking like money sinkholes. SpaceX hasn’t really made any meaningful contributions to space travel (at least recently), and all we’re seeing is failure after failure.

🚨 BREAKING: Another one of Elon Musk’s taxpayer-funded Starship rockets just exploded—AGAIN.

How many billions are we wasting on this failure factory?

Everything Musk touches blows up, catches fire, or crashes—including the Trump Administration. pic.twitter.com/40kXk8NpNy

— Chris D. Jackson (@ChrisDJackson) March 7, 2025

Aside from money and resources, it also had a wider impact on the surrounding areas, as the Federal Aviation Administration was forced to issue ground stops at airports in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, and Orlando due to the raining space debris. 

All of this makes you wonder how such a wasteful and inefficient individual, one who seems to be unnecessarily spending money on doomed rocket launches every month, could be trusted running a government department dedicated to cutting unnecessary spending — hypocrite much? Musk fanboys would be calling for SpaceX CEO’s head on a plate, if it weren’t Elon himself running the company.