Advertisement
Space
WorldUnited States & Canada

SpaceX’s latest Starship test flight ends with another explosion

SpaceX spacecraft experienced ‘a rapid unscheduled disassembly’ in the second consecutive Starship failure this year

Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
11

01:52

SpaceX’s latest Starship test flight ends with another explosion

SpaceX’s latest Starship test flight ends with another explosion
Associated Press
Nearly two months after an explosion sent flaming debris raining down on the Turks and Caicos, SpaceX launched another mammoth Starship rocket on Thursday, but lost contact minutes into the test flight as the spacecraft came tumbling down and broke apart.

This time, wreckage from the latest explosion was seen streaming from the skies over Florida. It was not immediately known whether the spacecraft’s self-destruct system had kicked in to blow it up.

The 123-metre (403-foot) rocket blasted off from Texas. SpaceX caught the first-stage booster back at the pad with giant mechanical arms, but engines on the spacecraft on top started shutting down as it streaked eastward for what was supposed to be a controlled entry over the Indian Ocean, half a world away.

Contact was lost less than 10 minutes into the flight as the spacecraft went into an out-of-control spin.

Starship reached nearly 150km (90 miles) in altitude before trouble struck and before four mock satellites could be deployed. It was not immediately clear where it came down, but images of flaming debris were captured from the Bahamas and Florida, including near Cape Canaveral, and posted online.

Debris streaking through the sky in Big Sampson Kay, Bahamas. Photo via Reuters
Debris streaking through the sky in Big Sampson Kay, Bahamas. Photo via Reuters

The space-skimming flight was supposed to last an hour. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it would require SpaceX to investigate the accident.

Advertisement