5.6 C
London
Wednesday, February 12, 2025

SpaceX's Starship rocket “didn't survive.” The test failed. The ship broke apart in midair

Must read

- Advertisement -


– We have lost the ship – this was a short message regarding the SpaceX Starship rocket, more than 20 minutes after launch, delivered by engineer Kate Tice. The largest rocket in human history took to the sky just before 11:30 p.m. on Thursday in Poland, but after about a minute the command center lost contact with it. The spacecraft disintegrated in mid-air. However, the first stage of the Super Heavy launch vehicle successfully landed for the second time and was successfully intercepted by mechanical arms for the second time.

On Thursday, SpaceX's Starship rocket was launched from the SpaceX Starbase test facility located on Boca Chica Beach near Brownsville, Texas. The start took place before 23.30 Polish time. Initially, the launch of the mega rocket was scheduled for Wednesday, but due to weather conditions it was postponed to the next day.

While the Super Heavy launch module – the component of the ship that takes Starship into orbit – returned safely to the launch site, the spacecraft itself, which was scheduled to orbit the Earth and crash into the Indian Ocean, was, in the words of company spokesman Dan Hout, “missing.”

About a minute after takeoff, it stopped providing telemetry data. According to Hout, only in the following days and weeks will it be possible to collect data that will allow us to answer the question of what actually happened. After the failed test, he said the Starship was packed with the upgrades it was supposed to be testing, “didn't survive,” and its components were “interacting with each other for the first time.”

SpaceX later confirmed that Starship had experienced “unscheduled rapid disassembly,” which is industry parlance for disintegrating. “Our teams will be examining data from today's flight to better understand the causes. In a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today's flight will help us improve Starship's reliability,” the company said.

- Advertisement -

Another mega rocket test flight

Starship is a two-stage mega rocket measuring 123 meters. Its first stage is the Super Heavy booster (i.e. carrier module), and the second is Starship, which is a spacecraft. The rocket is intended to carry the largest loads into orbit and significantly reduce the costs of such transport.

As announced by SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, during the seventh flight the front flaps of the vehicle were to be tested, which were reduced in size and moved towards the front part, away from the heat shield, which significantly reduces their exposure to heating during re-entry into the atmosphere. The drive system has been redesigned, including: the fuel volume was increased by as much as 25 percent, vacuum insulation of fuel lines was used, a new engine fuel supply system and an improved propulsion avionics module were introduced. “All these changes increase the vehicle's performance and enable longer missions,” SpaceX emphasized. In addition, the first attempt to place a payload in orbit – ten Starlink satellite simulators – was to be carried out. Numerous atmospheric entry and landing experiments were also planned, including a ship capture test and the return of the Super Heavy booster.

Starship rocket ready for launch. Photo from January 16, 2025 Eric Gay/Associated Press/East News

“We will strive to send people and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon and Mars.”

Thermal shield tests were also said to be particularly important. It was to use the latest generation of protective plates during its seventh flight and include a backup layer to ensure safety in the event of damage. In addition, a significant number of protective tiles have been removed from the ship's upper stage, which will allow for strength tests in places most exposed to damage. Various types of metal plates were also to be tested, including one with active cooling. Furthermore, the ship's reentry profile was designed to deliberately stress the structural limits of the flaps at the maximum dynamic pressure experienced during entry. “The coming year will be a breakthrough for Starship, with the goal of launching a system for reusing the entire vehicle and implementing increasingly ambitious missions. We will strive to send people and cargo to the Earth's orbit, the Moon and Mars,” SpaceX emphasized before launch.

During the sixth test flight of the rocket, in the second half of November 2023, not everything went as planned. Its launch module, instead of returning to Texas to the mechanical arms of the launch tower, was redirected to the Gulf of Mexico. The second part of the rocket landed programmatically in the Indian Ocean.

Earlier, Bezos' rocket flew

Starship's seventh test flight coincided with the launch of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket, owned by Jeff Bezos. The 98-meter-long rocket was launched on Thursday morning from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in Florida. In the future, this rocket is to be used to carry large payloads into Earth's orbit, and some elements of its system are to be reusable. The Blue Origin rocket is distinguished by the design of the payload fairing, a system that protects the equipment carried. It is wide, which allows larger payloads to be placed into orbit.

Photo from the sixth launch of the mega rocket. The photo was taken on November 19, 2024 PAP/EPA/MICHAEL GONZALEZ

Starship rocket. The photo was taken in Texas in July 2021 luckyluke007/Shutterstock

Author:anw, asty/adso

Main photo source: Eric Gay/Associated Press/East News



Source link

More articles

- Advertisement -

Latest article