SpaceX launches Starship 8 before losing contact with craft minutes later
SpaceX launched its eighth Starship today and completed its third "catch" of the Super Heavy Booster but the rocket exploded after 10 minutes in the air.
SpaceX launched another test of its Starship rocket today, but the mission wasn't as successful as some had hoped.
The eighth test of the Starship successfully took off and completed its third "catch" of the Super Heavy booster- but the ship exploded less than 10 minutes in the air.
The rocketship launched from the Starbase facility near Boca Chica Beach, Texas, and ended up losing altitude after multiple engines stopped working only 20 seconds before the end of the ascent burn.
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“During Starship’s ascent burn, the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly and contact was lost,” a statement from SpaceX read on X.
“Our team immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses.”
“We will review the data from today’s flight test to better understand root case. As always, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will offer additional lessons to improve Starship’s reliability,” the statement added.
The livestream had over 1 million viewers who watched the 400-foot-tall ship out of control until the camera shut off.
Expected to land in the Indian Ocean, the rocket ended up breaking apart into fiery debris over the Atlantic Ocean, with some users posting footage of the event on social media.
Some in the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos posted that they watched the wreckage as the ship came crashing down back to earth.
The catastrophe caused multiple flights at Florida airports to temporarily ground due to "space launch debris" the Federal Aviation Administration reported.
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SpaceX lost contact with the rocket before it was able to station its test satellites that were set to occur at the 17 minute mark.
Before the rocket exploded, SpaceX completed its third catch of its Super Heavy booster that held 33 Raptor engines and returned to the launchpad in Texas.
The explosion today caused SpaceX to postpone its next plan for a launch on Monday.
