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The Starship’s Super Heavy booster separated from the upper stage after about 2 ½ minutes of firing
While the company was successful in capturing a booster from the rocket as it returned to the launch tower, the Starship spacecraft was lost.
SpaceX launched the eighth integrated test flight of its massive Starship mega-rocket system, with the goal of stress-testing the spacecraft and meeting objectives that were not achieved during the fiery test in January. However, similar to the seventh test flight, the eighth flight also resulted in the loss of the Starship vehicle.
While the company was successful in capturing a booster from the rocket as it returned to the launch tower, the Starship spacecraft was lost, according to a report on CNN.
The uncrewed mission lifted off at 5:30 p.m. CT (6:30 p.m. ET) from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in South Texas. The company had postponed a Tuesday launch attempt due to “too many question marks,” as stated by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, which led to the cancellation.
The Starship spacecraft, also known as the upper stage, was launched atop the 232-foot-tall (71-meter-tall) Super Heavy rocket booster. About 2 ½ minutes into the flight, Super Heavy separated from the upper stage.
Following separation, the booster successfully landed within the “chopstick” arms of “Mechazilla,” SpaceX’s launch tower near Brownsville, Texas. This marks the third successful landing of a Super Heavy booster using the chopsticks.
Meanwhile, the Starship spacecraft fired its engines to set itself on a suborbital trajectory for about an hour. However, about 20 seconds before completing its ascent burn, SpaceX lost contact with the spacecraft. Several engines were seen shutting down during the livestream.
“Once you lose enough of those center engines, you’re going to lose attitude control,” explained SpaceX’s Dan Huot. “And so we did see the ship start to spin, and at this point, we have lost contact with the ship.”
Around 17 ½ minutes after liftoff, Starship was scheduled to deploy a batch of mock Starlink satellites for the first time. Like the spacecraft itself, the demo satellites were not meant to reach orbit.
SpaceX’s key objectives for the eighth test flight of Starship, including attempting to reignite a single Starship engine in space, were similar to those of the January flight, which ended in flames.
The loss of signal occurred at nearly the same point as Flight 7, which ended in an explosion over the Turks and Caicos Islands, scattering debris and hitting a car. It has not been confirmed exactly where the vehicle exploded in today’s mission, but the explosion was visible from parts of Florida and occurred over the Caribbean, based on reports from residents shared with CNN.
In response, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) halted flights into Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, and Orlando airports due to “falling space debris” until 8 p.m. ET. The FAA also suspended departures from Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International and Miami International Airports. Flights leaving these airports were delayed by an average of 30 to 45 minutes, respectively.
“We’ve got a lot of measures in place, like debris response areas, where we coordinate very closely with air traffic control,” said Huot. “We have many precautions before launching a rocket to ensure public safety. These worked last time, and they are actively in place now.”
After the explosion, SpaceX posted an update on X (formerly Twitter): “During Starship’s ascent burn, the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly, and contact was lost. Our team immediately began coordination 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. As always, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will offer additional lessons to improve Starship’s reliability.”
The FAA has mandated that SpaceX conduct a mishap investigation into the loss of the Starship vehicle. According to the FAA, “A mishap investigation is designed to enhance public safety, determine the root cause of the event, and identify corrective actions to prevent a recurrence.” The FAA will be involved in every step of the SpaceX-led investigation and must approve the final report and corrective actions. A return to flight will only be allowed once the FAA determines that the mishap does not affect public safety.
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