Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) on Saturday launched its mega rocket Starship, but lost both the booster and the spacecraft in a pair of explosions minutes into the test flight.
The rocket ship reached space following liftoff from south Texas before communication was suddenly lost.
SpaceX officials said it appeared the ship’s self-destruct system blew it up over the Gulf of Mexico.
Photo: AFP
Minutes earlier, the separated booster had exploded over the gulf. By then, its job was already done.
Saturday’s demo lasted about eight minutes, about twice as long as the first test in April, which also ended in an explosion. The latest flight came to an end as the ship’s six engines were almost done firing to put it on an around-the-world path.
At nearly 121m, Starship is the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, with the goal of ferrying people to the moon and Mars.
“The real topping on the cake today, that successful liftoff,” SpaceX engineer John Insprucker said, adding that all 33 booster engines fired as designed, unlike last time.
The booster also separated seamlessly from the spaceship, which reached an altitude of 148km.
“We got so much data, and that will all help us to improve for our next flight,” SpaceX quality systems engineer Kate Tice said.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk watched from behind launch controllers at the southern tip of Texas near the Mexico border, near Boca Chica Beach. At the company’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California, employees cheered as Starship soared at daybreak. The room grew quiet once it was clear the spaceship had been destroyed.
SpaceX had been aiming for an altitude of 240km, just high enough to send the bullet-shaped spacecraft around the globe before ditching into the Pacific near Hawaii about one-and-a-half hours after liftoff, short of a full orbit.
Following April’s flight demo, SpaceX made dozens of improvements to the rocket as well as the launch pad. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Wednesday cleared the rocket for flight, after confirming that all safety and environmental concerns had been met.
After Saturday’s launch, the FAA said that no injuries or public damage had been reported and that an investigation was under way to determine what went wrong.
SpaceX cannot launch another Starship until the review is complete and corrections made, the FAA added.
NASA is counting on Starship to land astronauts on the moon by the end of 2025 or shortly thereafter. The space agency awarded SpaceX a US$3 billion contract to make it happen, by transferring astronauts from its Orion capsule to Starship in lunar orbit before heading down to the surface.
“Today’s test is an opportunity to learn — then fly again,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
CONFLICTING REPORTS: Beijing said it was ‘not familiar with the matter’ when asked if Chinese jets were used in the conflict, after Pakistan’s foreign minister said they were The Pakistan Army yesterday said it shot down 25 Indian drones, a day after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed rivals in two decades. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, escalating days of gunfire along their border. At least 45 deaths were reported from both sides following Wednesday’s violence, including children. Pakistan’s military said in a statement yesterday that it had “so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones” at multiple location across the country. “Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations,” Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he would make a decision about how the US government would refer to the body of water commonly known as the Persian Gulf when he visits Arab states next week. Trump told reporters at the White House that he expects his hosts in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will ask him about the US officially calling the waterway the Arabian Gulf or Gulf of Arabia. “They’re going to ask me about that when I get there, and I’ll have to make a decision,” Trump said. “I don’t want to hurt anybody’s