Elon Musk’s Starship Blows Up Near Bahamas After Explosion in Space | WATCH- wna24

Texas: SpaceX lost contact with the mammoth Starship rocket on Thursday just a few minutes after launch. The 403-foot (123-meter) rocket lifted off from Texas just before sunset.

SpaceX successfully recovered the first-stage booster using giant mechanical arms, but the engines on the spacecraft atop the booster started shutting down as it streaked eastward, aiming for a controlled entry over the Indian Ocean, half a world away. Contact was lost with the spacecraft as it went into an out-of-control spin.

“Unfortunately, this happened last time too, so we have some practice at this now,” SpaceX flight commentator Dan Huot said from the launch site.

The mission, which was supposed to last for one hour, failed to launch the four mock satellites.

NASA has booked Starship to land astronauts on the moon later this decade. SpaceX’s Elon Musk is aiming for Mars with Starship, the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket.

As in the previous attempt, Starship carried four mock satellites to release once the craft reached space on this eighth test flight, as a practice for future missions. These satellites resembled SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites, thousands of which currently orbit Earth. The mock satellites were intended to fall back down after their brief journey into space.

Starship’s flaps, computers, and fuel systems were redesigned in preparation for the next big step: returning the spacecraft to the launch site, just like the booster.

During the previous test, SpaceX successfully captured the booster at the launch pad, but the spacecraft exploded several minutes later over the Atlantic. No injuries or major damage were reported.

According to an investigation that remains ongoing, leaking fuel triggered a series of fires that shut down the spacecraft’s engines. The onboard self-destruct system activated as planned.

SpaceX has stated that several improvements were made to the spacecraft following the accident, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently cleared Starship for launch once again.

Starships are launched from the southernmost tip of Texas near the Mexican border. SpaceX is also building another Starship complex at Cape Canaveral, Florida, home to the company’s smaller Falcon rockets, which ferry astronauts and satellites to orbit.