SpaceX Starship rocket breaks apart for second launch in a row
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has suffered another setback after its Starship rocket broke apart for the second launch in a row.
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Elon Musk’s SpaceX suffered another setback on Thursday after the upper stage of its Starship rocket broke apart for the second launch in a row, sending debris showering back to earth.
SpaceX was conducting the eighth uncrewed test flight of its mega-rocket — the world’s biggest and most powerful — two months after the last attempt also ended in failure, sending debris raining over the Caribbean.
“During Starship’s ascent burn, the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly and contact was lost,” SpaceX said in a statement on X.
“Our team immediately began co-ordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses. We will review the data from today’s flight test to better understand root cause. As always, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will offer additional lessons to improve Starship’s reliability.”
SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk is yet to comment on the failure.
Starship successfully blasted off from the Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas shortly after 5.30pm local time (10.30am AEDT).
Earlier attempts to carry out the test were called off on Monday and Wednesday.
Minutes after lift-off and booster separation, a video live feed showed the upper stage tumbling uncontrollably, with signal soon cutting out.
Despite losing contact with the upper stage, SpaceX managed to return the massive booster unit to the launch tower by catching it with arms called “chopsticks” — the third time it has completed the tricky engineering feat.
The upper stage was supposed to remain in space for about 40 minutes before performing a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean off the western coast of Australia, as in previous flights.
About 40 minutes after the launch, Spacex turned off its livestream and the fate of the errant upper stage was not immediately known.
Witnesses from vantage points in The Bahamas, Turks and Caicos Islands and Miami shared stunning footage on social media of the flaming debris raining back to earth.
Multiple airports in Florida grounded flights on Thursday evening due to the space launch debris, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The FAA grounded Starship after its flight on January 16 ended with the upper stage disintegrating in a fiery cascade over the Turks and Caicos Islands, prompting clean-up efforts for fallen debris.
Last Friday, the FAA announced Starship could proceed with its next flight before the agency finalises its review of SpaceX’s “mishap investigation”.
During Joe Biden’s presidency, Mr Musk frequently accused the FAA of excessively scrutinising SpaceX over safety and environmental concerns.
Standing 123 metres tall, Starship is designed to eventually be fully reusable and is key to Mr Musk’s vision of colonising Mars.
Meanwhile, NASA is awaiting a modified version of Starship as a lunar lander for its Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the Moon this decade.
— with AFP
Originally published as SpaceX Starship rocket breaks apart for second launch in a row
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