EspaceXis gargantuan, powered by methane Spatialship flew 90 miles above Earth Saturday morning, although it exploded before it could complete its space journey.
Federal officials said no one reported injuries or damage to public property after the test.
Starship, a 400-foot-tall super-heavy rocket and spacecraft, took off shortly after 7 a.m. local time from SpaceX’s private spaceport in south Texas. For its second major flight test, the rocket survived longer and flew further than in Aprilshowing major technical improvements over the past seven months.
Especially, Elon MuskThe company was eager to demonstrate a new method of separating the spacecraft’s propellant in mid-air, known as “hot-stage.” The first stage ignited its engines just before jettisoning the second stage, which proceeded as planned. Moments later, the booster broke apart in a spectacular explosion.
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The explosion was not entirely unexpected.
“Today there is a good chance that our booster will also suffer damage from the second stage engines, but we need to test it, see if the system can tolerate it, and collect data to learn how to improve staging at hot next. time,” SpaceX quality systems engineering manager Kate Tice said ahead of the launch during a livestream on X, the social platform acquired by Musk last year.
It is here that the booster experienced a “rapid and unplanned disassembly”, as the aeronautics says to say “gom”. You can fast forward to 42:14 in the show for the fireworks:
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SpaceX incorporated the new warm-up procedure to prevent gravity from slowing down the spacecraft. The method also leverages physics to do most of the work by moving the two steps away from each other. Additionally, it could increase Starship’s transportation capacity, one day allowing it to carry about 10% more cargo and people into orbit.
“More payload and more people on Mars,” Tice said, referring to Musk’s personal vision to use a fleet of spaceships to populate Mars with 1 million people by 2050.
Despite the propellant explosion, the spacecraft continued to climb to an altitude almost three times that of the previous attempt.
Boom.
Credit: SpaceX/X screenshot
The flight ended prematurely when something triggered the ship’s automated flight termination system as it flew over the Gulf of Mexico, said John Insprucker, SpaceX senior integration engineer. The system is a standard safety feature in exploding rockets if any problems arise during the flight.
If everything had gone according to plan, the ship would have flown into space around Earth at an altitude of more than 150 miles, then landed off the coast of Hawaii about an hour and a half later. Instead, it exploded about eight minutes after takeoff.
“With a test like this, success comes from what we learn,” the company said. in a report. “Today’s test will help us improve Starship’s reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multi-planetary.”
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Following the test, the Federal Aviation Administration said it would investigate the anomaly that led to the destruction of the spacecraft. It will then identify a checklist of fixes that SpaceX must make before it can fly Starship again.
The launch was intended to be a crucial demonstration of the hardware NASA depends on humans returning to the Moon in the coming years. The American space agency has a $4 billion contract with SpaceX to use spacecraft to land astronauts on the moon for Artemis III and IV, two upcoming missions which could take place as early as 2025 and 2028 respectively. NASA could end up changing its missions if delays in achieving key milestones persist, Jim Free, then NASA’s associate administrator for exploration systems, said at a news conference in August.
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But if there were underlying concerns about the pace of SpaceX’s progress, they weren’t evident in NASA executives’ comments Saturday.
“Spaceflight is a daring adventure that requires a positive spirit and bold innovation. Today’s test is an opportunity to learn, then fly again,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson , in a message on X, the old Twitter site. “Together, @NASA and @SpaceX will return humanity to the Moon, Mars and beyond.”