SpaceX announced Thursday that its Starship spacecraft was damaged during a flight meant to test the capabilities of its giant rocket.
The upper stage of the rocket system appears to have disintegrated somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico or possibly the Caribbean Sea. Shortly after SpaceX announced it had lost contact with the spacecraft, a video showing debris flying through the sky surfaced on social media.
Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, Shared a video of the rubble on Xwrote, “Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!”
Musk added later: “Preliminary indications are that there was an oxygen/fuel leak in the cavity above the firewall of the ship’s engine, which was large enough to create a pressure that exceeded the capacity of the vent.”
Musk added that there will be no changes to future launch plans, although some changes will be made, such as increased firefighting efforts.
No one was aboard the Starship, but it is currently being tested in preparation for a mission to the moon and beyond.
SpaceX’s seventh Starship test flight started off smoothly, with the rocket lifting off and the booster returning intact to shore at the company’s Starbase launch site near Brownsville, Texas.
Problems began shortly thereafter, and SpaceX lost contact with Starship about nine minutes after liftoff. Kate Tice, senior manager of quality systems engineering at SpaceX, said the company had lost a ship. SpaceX wrote about X It said there had been a “rapid and unplanned demolition.”
The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday that it was “aware of an anomaly that occurred during the SpaceX Starship Flight 7 mission.”
Shortly after, the FAA said in an updated statement that it “temporarily slowed and redirected the aircraft around the area where spacecraft debris had fallen,” adding that normal operations had resumed.
SpaceX video According to an article posted early Thursday, Starship’s planned trajectory would take it from the southern tip of Texas, over the Gulf of Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula, east to near Cuba, and across the Atlantic Ocean. If the flight had gone as planned, it would have ended up in the Indian Ocean.
Starship is the most powerful rocket ever developed, standing 400 feet tall. The rocket consists of two parts: a first stage booster known as the Super Heavy and an upper stage Starship spacecraft.
The system is expected to play a key role in NASA’s efforts to return to the moon. NASA has selected SpaceX to carry astronauts to the moon’s surface on NASA’s Artemis III mission, scheduled to launch in 2027. Musk also said Starship could be used for future Mars missions.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson I posted a congratulatory message to X. noted that test flights are critical to ensuring safe manned missions.
“Spaceflight isn’t easy. It’s never routine. That’s why these tests are so important. Each test brings us closer to the moon and, through #Artemis, to Mars. ” he wrote.
It is not uncommon for accidents to occur during the testing of new rockets and spacecraft. SpaceX’s first attempt to launch Starship in 2023 ended with a fiery explosion minutes after liftoff. The incident triggered a months-long safety review that scrutinized the environmental impact of rocket launches from South Texa’s Gulf Coast.
Holly Hackman told NBC News she was walking on the beach with her boyfriend in the Turks and Caicos Islands when debris started flowing overhead and recorded video. she posted online.
“He thought it was an alien,” Hackman said. “We were going for a walk on the beach and my boyfriend looked up and freaked me out.”
Colin Seeley, Noraig O'Connor and Brian Gullion contributed.
Source: www.nbcnews.com
