Starship's seventh test flight ends in disintegration drama
The Starship spacecraft lost contact with the base on Thursday and broke up in the air during its seventh test flight. The recordings show falling debris. Some aeroplanes were turning back to avoid collision.
The Starship spacecraft, owned by SpaceX, experienced a major failure during its seventh test flight in Boca Chica, Texas.
The Starship launched just after 10:30 PM Greenwich Time. After successfully separating from the Super Heavy booster, the spacecraft reached an altitude of 146 kilometres above Earth and a speed of over 17,000 kilometres per hour. Unfortunately, after about eight minutes of flight, it stopped transmitting data.
"We (lost) all communications with the ship.That is essentially telling us we had an anomaly with the upper stage," said SpaceX broadcast host Dan Huot. The company later confirmed that the Starship experienced an "unplanned rapid disassembly."
Analysis of the causes of failure
"Teams will continue to review data from today's flight test to better understand root cause. With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today's flight will help us improve Starship's reliability," the company stated.
The failure occurred before the rocket engines detached, and the main phase of the mission involved placing simulated Starlink satellite payloads into orbit.
Numerous recordings of the disaster's aftermath have appeared online.
According to Flightradar24, several planes in the region were turning back or delaying flights at the time of the failure to avoid collision with debris. In official statements, delays were explained as a "rocket launch anomaly."
Success of Super Heavy landing
Despite the failure of the Starship mission, SpaceX managed to land the first stage of the Super Heavy rocket for the second time in history. The module returned to the launch site and was caught in the air by mechanical arms.
Starship is a two-stage mega-rocket with a height of 123 metres, whose first stage is the Super Heavy booster powered by 33 Raptor methane-liquid oxygen engines. The second stage is the actual spacecraft with six similar engines.
The rocket tested was an experimental vehicle, and new elements were introduced after the November trial. The propulsion system was redesigned, the fuel tank volume was increased by 25%, vacuum insulation was applied to the fuel lines, a new engine power system was introduced, and the propulsion avionics module was improved. SpaceX emphasises that these changes aim to improve the rocket's reliability and efficiency.
