Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship rocket exploded 10 minutes into its latest test flight, marking the second such incident this year. The 400-foot-tall (123-meter) rocket launched smoothly from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Texas on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. local time (11:30 p.m. GMT). However, shortly after separating from the Super Heavy booster, the Starship’s upper stage experienced engine failures. Video footage showed the spacecraft spinning out of control before the livestream cut to black. The explosion resulted in a significant debris cloud over areas in the Caribbean and Atlantic, according to CNN.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) temporarily halted flights until 8 p.m. ET due to falling space debris, impacting major Florida airports such as Miami International, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and Orlando. Departures faced delays of up to 45 minutes after resuming. Similar delays averaging 30 minutes were reported at Philadelphia International Airport due to the same issue.
SpaceX confirmed the incident, referring to it as a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.” The company stated, “Our team immediately coordinated with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses. We will review the data from today’s flight test to better understand the root cause. Success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will provide valuable lessons to improve Starship’s reliability.”
This test flight occurred just six weeks after the previous Starship launch, which also ended in a fiery explosion over the Turks and Caicos Islands. SpaceX, under Elon Musk’s leadership, has emphasized rapid testing to accelerate Starship’s development. The company noted ahead of the launch, “Developmental testing by definition is unpredictable. By frequently testing flight hardware, we can quickly learn and make design improvements to bring Starship online as a fully reusable vehicle.”
The eighth test flight aimed to achieve several firsts, including deploying a payload into orbit. Four dummy Starlink satellites were planned for release during the 90-minute mission. Despite the upper stage failure, SpaceX successfully caught the Super Heavy booster using the chopstick mechanism at the Starbase launch tower.
Starship’s massive payload capacity positions it to deliver SpaceX’s next-generation Starlink satellites into orbit and support missions to Mars. Musk envisions establishing a permanent human colony on Mars by 2050, requiring thousands of Starship rockets for transporting crews and cargo throughout the Solar System.
— news from The Independent