SpaceX launched its seventh test flight of its Starship rocket on Thursday, but the spacecraft was destroyed after the booster returned to the pad.
Elon Musk’s company said that the Starship vehicle crashed, and described what happened as a “rapid, unscheduled dismantling.” The rocket appeared to lift off from SpaceX’s launch pad at the Starbase facility near Brownsville, Texas, but eight and a half minutes into the mission, ground control announced that contact with the ship had been lost.
Flights near the Turks and Caicos Islands were seen turning to avoid debris from the explosion on Thursday and footage of debris falling from the sky in the area was shared.
Video shared by Musk Of the falling debris, he writes: “Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!”
The Federal Aviation Administration announced a brief slowdown of flights in and around the Florida area due to possible falling debris from the launch.
The spacecraft was supposed to fly across the Gulf of Mexico from Texas in a close loop around the world, similar to previous tests. SpaceX packed the new, updated model with 10 mock satellites for launch practice.
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One minute before the loss, SpaceX used the launch tower’s giant mechanical arms to catch the returning booster, a feat that had only been achieved once before. The super-heavy first stage booster hovered above the launch pad before being grabbed by a pair of robotic arms, called chopsticks.
There were no astronauts on board the test flight mission, and the latest data from the spacecraft indicate an altitude of 146 kilometers and a speed of 13,245 kilometers per hour.
“Initial indications were that there was an oxygen/fuel leak in the cavity above the ship’s engine firewall that was large enough to build pressure beyond the capacity of the wind,” Musk wrote on X a few hours after Flight 7’s launch. “Apart from double checking for leaks, we will add fire suppression to this volume and possibly increase ventilation space. Nothing yet indicates that the next launch will be postponed beyond next month.
This was the seventh test flight of the largest and most powerful missile in the world. This mission was the second time SpaceX was able to return and capture the stage booster using the launch tower.
NASA has reserved a pair of spacecraft to land astronauts on the moon later this decade, while Musk’s ultimate goal is Mars.
He also plans to actually launch Starlinks on Starships before moving on to other satellites, and eventually to crews.
—With files from The Associated Press
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