SpaceX’s Starship megarocket blows up over Indian Ocean in latest test failure

Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched its mega rocket Starship on Tuesday on a third test flight after the earlier two ended in failure. However, just minutes into the flight, the third test also met with the same fate.

The rocket was launched on its ninth demo from SpaceX’s launch site in Texas, Starbase, on Tuesday evening. People across the state even came out to witness the spectacle. However, just minutes later, the 403-foot-long rocket lost control and portion of it exploded.

CEO Elon Musk‘s SpaceX hoped to release a series of mock satellites following liftoff, but that got nixed because the door failed to open all the way. Then the spacecraft began spinning as it skimmed space toward an uncontrolled landing in the Indian Ocean.

SpaceX later confirmed that the spacecraft experienced “a rapid unscheduled disassembly”, or burst apart.

“Teams will continue to review data and work toward our next flight test,” the company said in an online statement.

What SpaceX said

The launch system for Tuesday’s test flight included the upper portion of the Starship and its Super Heavy Booster. After the test flight failure, SpaceX said, “First reflight of a Super Heavy booster! Today’s test objectives were designed to intentionally push Super Heavy to the limits, giving us real-world data about its performance that will directly feed in to making the next generation booster even more capable.”

“As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly. Teams will continue to review data and work toward our next flight test. With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s test will help us improve Starship’s reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multiplanetary,” it said.

According to SpaceX commentator Dan Huot, the firm lost attitude control of the rocket during the flight. What led to the attitude control was some “leaks” on the ship, he said, reported Bloomberg.

“We have been dealing with some leaks on the ship…This is also what led to that loss of attitude control,” Huot said.

With inputs from AP, Bloomberg.