Elon Muskʼs SpaceX company launched the Starship rocket on January 16 as part of its final test, but the spacecraft crashed.
This is reported by The Guardian.
The aerospace company said that the spacecraftʼs six engines shut down one after the other and communication with the ship was lost 8 minutes and 30 seconds after launch. The upgraded ship took off from the Boca Chica Space Center in Texas (USA) and was supposed to orbit the Earth in a near-circle, as in previous tests.
Instead, the ship exploded. SpaceX used the launch padʼs giant mechanical arms to catch the returning booster. Company communications officer Dan Huot says it will take time to determine the cause of the accident.
"It was very nice to see the launch vehicle fall, but we are obviously upset about the ship," Huot commented on the launch.
Elon Musk believes the cause of the accident was an oxygen or fuel leak in a cavity above the shipʼs engine firewall, which was large enough to create pressure that exceeded the capacity of the vent.
It was the seventh test flight of the worldʼs largest and most powerful rocket, The Guardian reports. NASA is planning to use SpaceX spacecraft to land on the moon later this decade.
- Recently, Australian airline Qantas had to urgently delay several of its flights to South Africa due to the fall of debris from SpaceX rockets returning to Earth.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine please follow us on X.