SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft exploded in space on Thursday. This happened minutes after it lifted off from Texas. The FAA then halted air traffic in parts of Florida. This is the second straight failure this year for Elon Musk’s Mars rocket program.
Several videos on social media showed fiery debris streaking through the dusk skies. The debris was seen near south Florida and the Bahamas after Starship broke up in space. It began to spin uncontrollably with its engines cut off, a SpaceX live stream showed.
The failure of the eighth Starship test comes just over a month after the seventh also ended in an explosive failure. The back-to-back mishaps occurred in early mission phases that SpaceX has easily surpassed previously. This is a setback for a program Musk had sought to speed up this year.
The 403-foot (123-meter) rocket system is central to Musk’s plan to send humans to Mars as soon as the turn of the decade.
The Federal Aviation Administration briefly issued ground stops at the Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and Orlando airports because of “space launch debris.” It said it had opened a mishap investigation into the incident.
The rocket lifted off about 6:30 p.m. ET (2330 GMT) from SpaceX’s sprawling Boca Chica, Texas, rocket facilities. The Super Heavy first stage booster flew back to Earth as planned. A SpaceX crane successfully grabbed it in midair.
Minutes later, SpaceX’s live stream showed the Starship upper stage spinning in space. A visualization of the rocket’s engines showed multiple engines shut down. Then the company said it had lost contact with the ship. Announcers immediately drew a connection to the previous flight.
“Unfortunately this happened last time too, so we’ve got some practice now,” SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot said on the live stream.
In a statement late Thursday, SpaceX said Starship experienced an “energetic event” in its aft section. This resulted in the loss of several engines.
“This in turn led to a loss of attitude control and ultimately a loss of communications with Starship,” the statement said. “Final contact with Starship came approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds after liftoff.”
SpaceX said there were no toxic materials among the debris.
The Starship failure in January ended eight minutes into flight. The rocket exploded and rained debris over Caribbean islands. It caused minor damage to a car in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The FAA regulates private rocket launches. The FAA said its investigation would require SpaceX to examine the failure’s cause. SpaceX must also get the agency’s sign-off before Starship can fly again.
The FAA last month approved SpaceX’s launch license for Thursday’s test flight while its investigation into the company’s previous Starship failure remained open. In doing so, the FAA said it had reviewed SpaceX’s license application. It also reviewed early details from the company’s mishap investigation before determining that Starship’s eighth flight could proceed.
Starship was aiming to make nearly a full orbit around Earth. It was to re-enter over the Indian Ocean for a splashdown. This simulates a landing sequence that SpaceX wants to soon carry out on land as a key next phase of the rocket’s development.
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