SpaceX’s Starship rocket exploded during a test flight, months after a previous failed launch attempt – with multiple flights having to be grounded in Florida due to debris.
The 403-foot rocket blasted off from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, at around 6.30pm local time. But, within minutes of launch, contact was lost as the spacecraft – designed to land astronauts on the moon and ferry crews to Mars – went into an out-of-control spin..
Starship launched a test flight at around 6.30pm local time. Credit: AP
Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and Orlando airports were issued the notice because of “space launch debris” until 8pm. Departures at the four Florida airports were delayed by an average of 45 minutes due to the incident.
It was not immediately clear where the rocket came down, but images of flaming debris seen from Florida and the Caribbean were posted online. Elon Musk’s SpaceX spacecraft was captured on camera exploding and falling back down to Earth in its second failed attempt this year to deploy mock satellites.
The flight test was Starship’s eighth test overall but second attempt to deploy mock satellites this year and SpaceX’s website released a report later in the day reflecting on the test.
It explained the Super Heavy booster ‘successfully lit its 33 Raptor engines and propelled Starship through a nominal first-stage ascent’ and ‘approximately two and a half minutes into flight, the Super Heavy booster shutdown all but three of its Raptor engines as planned for hot-staging separation’.
However, despite the Super Heavy booster successfully relighting 11 of 13 planned Raptor engines and performing a ‘boostback burn to return itself to the launch site,’ its ascent then took a turn.
SpaceX’s Starship rocket exploded during a test flight. Credit: @_ericloosen_ / Reuters
The report details: “Prior to the end of the ascent burn, an energetic event in the aft portion of Starship resulted in the loss of several Raptor engines. This in turn led to a loss of attitude control and ultimately a loss of communications with Starship.”
This also led to the vehicle experiencing ‘a rapid unscheduled disassembly’ and also loss of contact with ground control, the report adding: “Final contact with Starship came approximately nine minutes and 30 seconds after liftoff.”
The failure ended up briefly grounding flights from some Florida airports, including those in Miami and Orlando, the BBC reports.
The test didn’t quite go to plan. Credit: SpaceX
Footage posted on social media appears to show people in the Bahamas spotting the debris disintegrating in the sky above them, with some adding they were taking shelter.
And the failure was captured by various social media users, one video shared to X (Twitter) showing lit up debris flying back down to Earth, the caption reading: “If NASA had the failure rate SpaceX does, Elon Musk would be firing everyone and Congress would be demanding to know where the money is going.”
