SpaceX’s mammoth Starship spun wildly out of control and broke apart during its eighth test flight in another setback for Elon Musk’s company less than two months after its last mission ended with an explosion.
A few minutes after blasting off on Thursday from south Texas, the rocket’s two portions split apart as planned. The Super Heavy booster then returned to Earth, where it was caught mid-air by the launch tower’s giant mechanical arms.
But then the Starship spacecraft began tumbling as it headed to space roughly eight minutes into flight, and mission control eventually lost contact with the vehicle.
While Starship ignited all six of its Raptor engines as planned, some engines started to malfunction before the engines were supposed to cut off, one of the SpaceX livestream hosts said. At that point, Starship started careening out of control.
Later, the company posted a statement on X saying Starship broke apart and that it was working with safety officials.
It said the spacecraft experienced “a rapid unscheduled disassembly” during the ascent engine firing.
“Our team immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses,” the company said in a statement.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)’s air traffic control system command centre issued an automated advisory alerting operators to falling debris. The agency also issued a “ground stop” order halting take-offs for some Florida airports due to space debris, which it later lifted.
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The FAA said it briefly slowed aircraft outside the area where space debris was falling. The agency will require SpaceX to perform a mishap investigation into the incident, as it typically does when there is an explosion.
Spectators posted video on X of debris raining down near the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic.
The flight was the second-straight launch of Starship that has been cut short around the eight-minute mark.
The company had a slate of upgrades it aimed to test, including Starship’s ability to deploy satellites into space, something it intended to do during the last attempt before it was cut short.
Starship is key to SpaceX chief executive Musk’s dream of sending humans and cargo to the moon and Mars. SpaceX has been periodically launching Starship on a series of test flights since 2023, with the goal of upgrading the rocket’s capabilities each time.
SpaceX planned to test a number of other upgrades during the flight, including more robust flaps that the rocket uses for steering through the atmosphere and better propulsion and navigation systems.
Engineers also aimed to restart one of Starship’s Raptor engines while it’s in space, a necessary technique the spacecraft will need in order to one day manoeuvre in orbit.
Like previous missions, the intention was for the upper portion of the rocket to go on a partial lap around the Earth before splashing down in a controlled landing roughly an hour later in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Australia.
NASA has booked Starship to land its astronauts on the moon later this decade. – Bloomberg
