Starship, SpaceX's spacecraft, undergoes unexpected destruction during its ninth flight test.
SpaceX's ninth Starship test flight ended prematurely due to a propellant leak, resulting in the loss of control and subsequent disintegration of the spacecraft during reentry. The incident occurred after the vehicle reached orbit, entering its suborbital trajectory following a successful lift-off from SpaceX's Starbase test facility in South Texas.
The issue, which appeared as an apparent propellant leak from the main propellant tank, caused a loss of pressure, preventing fuel from reaching the engines. As a result, SpaceX was unable to maintain control over the craft, leading to its spin and eventual fall into the Indian Ocean. The company had prepared a large landing zone to ensure public safety.
Without the ability to steer the craft, SpaceX reported that it re-entered Earth's atmosphere at an angle unfavorable for its heat shield. Consequently, most of the spacecraft was expected to burn up upon reentry, with the remaining debris falling into the Indian Ocean.
In a statement, SpaceX described the flight test as "exciting" but noted that SpaceX stands to learn from both successes and failures as it works towards its goal of making life multiplanetary. The company plans to continue reviewing data from the test and will work towards the next flight test.
Mounted atop a Super Heavy rocket powered by 33 Raptor engines, this uncrewed Starship successfully lifted off just after 7:30 p.m. ET. The powerful rocket, standing nearly 400 feet tall, is SpaceX's most powerful rocket system ever developed and aims for Starship to be fully reusable, capable of launching, landing, and flying again with minimal maintenance.
Tuesday's launch was part of SpaceX's iterative approach to engineering. With each mission, the company evaluates data, makes adjustments to the spacecraft, and builds upon its previous successes and lessons learned from failures. The flight test learnings are applied to future vehicles and missions until Starship is ready for passengers.
For Tuesday's mission, SpaceX made significant modifications to the upper stage based on lessons learned from previous flight tests, including the two that resulted in the destruction of the Starship. During the eighth flight test in early March, several engines shut down unexpectedly, causing SpaceX to lose control of the craft.
Upon investigation, SpaceX attributed the failure to a hardware failure with one of the engines, leading to fuel mixing and igniting where it shouldn't have, causing the ship to self-destruct. The debris from the explosion fell across South Florida and parts of the Atlantic, leading to ground stops at nearby airports. A similar failure occurred in January, resulting from stronger-than-expected vibrations causing a propellant leak and explosion. In both cases, the upper stage was lost, while the first-stage booster was successfully recovered.
Despite the failure, SpaceX collected critical data, including the successful performance of the heat shield tiles during ascent. A significant achievement of Tuesday's test was the first launch of a flight-proven Super Heavy booster, which had flown and returned during the seventh test flight. Of the booster's 33 engines, 29 were also reused from the previous test.
Unlike the two previous missions, where the heavy booster returned to its launch site, during Tuesday's launch, the booster followed a modified flight path that included a flip before it appears to have exploded while splashing down in the Gulf. Data and video were lost before the booster hit the water, but the company reported that it ultimately ended up in the ocean.
After achieving its planned trajectory in space, Starship's upper stage attempted to deploy a set of mock Starlink satellites to test its payload deployment capabilities. However, mission control was unable to get the doors open for the test. SpaceX plans to attempt this test again on a future mission.
Following the March test flight failure, Elon Musk wrote, "rockets are hard." On Tuesday evening, that sentiment seemed strikingly apparent.
- Despite the setback during the ninth Starship test flight, where the video showed a propellant leak and subsequent disintegration, SpaceX remains committed to learning from both successes and failures, as they aim for making life multiplanetary.
- The travel trajectory of the lost Starship was not as intended, as it entered Earth's atmosphere at an unfavorable angle due to the inability to steer the craft, causing most of the debris to burn up upon reentry and the remaining pieces to travel across the Indian Ocean.
- International attention is drawn to the events surrounding SpaceX's Starship testing, as the issues encountered, such as the propellant leak and subsequent failure, highlight the challenges and complexities of space-and-astronomy technology, particularly when it comes to politics and technological advancements.
