SpaceX launched its massive Starship rocket again Tuesday evening after two recent explosions, but the mission fell short as the spacecraft tumbled out of control and broke apart.
The 403-foot (123-meter) rocket took off from Starbase, SpaceX’s launch site in southern Texas, where residents recently voted to incorporate the area as an official city. CEO Elon Musk’s team had planned to release mock satellites after liftoff, but the satellite door failed to open fully. Soon after, the spacecraft began spinning uncontrollably and crashed into the Indian Ocean.
SpaceX confirmed the vehicle experienced a “rapid unscheduled disassembly,” meaning it broke apart mid-flight. The company said it will continue reviewing data to prepare for the next test. Musk called the launch a “big improvement” over previous attempts, which ended in fiery debris over the Atlantic Ocean.
This flight marked the first time a Starship used a recycled booster, which was allowed to crash into the Gulf of Mexico after contact was lost. The spacecraft apparently went out of control due to fuel leaks, causing the mission to miss many of its objectives, including testing the heat shield during reentry.
NASA is counting on SpaceX to make significant progress with Starship next year to support future moon missions. The rocket, the largest ever built, is critical to landing astronauts on the moon, with crewed lunar orbit flights planned for next year and surface landings expected no earlier than 2027.
Edgaroo Hernal started college at UP Diliman and received his BA in Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila, and Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Oak Brook, IL. He has 25 years of copy editing and management experience at Thomson West, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.
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