Starship breaks up mid‑flight, debris forces plane diversions
The Starship spacecraft lost contact with the base on Thursday and broke up in the air during its seventh test flight. The recordings show falling debris, and some airplanes were forced to turn back to avoid collision.
The Starship spacecraft, owned by SpaceX, experienced a major failure during its seventh test flight in Boca Chica, Texas.
Starship launched just after 5:30 PM Eastern Time. After a successful separation from the Super Heavy booster, the spacecraft reached an altitude of 91 miles above Earth and a speed of over 10,600 mph. Unfortunately, about eight minutes into the flight, it stopped transmitting data.
"We did lose all communications with the ship - that is essentially telling us we had an anomaly with the upper stage," said SpaceX broadcast host Dan Huot. The company later confirmed that the Starship experienced a "rapid unscheduled disassembly."
Analysis of the causes of failure
"Teams will continue to review data from today’s flight test to better understand root cause. With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve Starship’s reliability," the company stated.
The failure occurred before the rocket engines detached and before the main phase of the mission, which involved placing simulated Starlink satellite payloads into orbit.
Numerous recordings of the disaster's aftermath have appeared online.
According to Flightradar24, at the time of the failure, several planes in the region were turning back or delaying flights to avoid collision with debris. In official statements, delays were explained as a rocket launch "anomaly."
Success of Super Heavy landing
Despite the failure of the Starship mission, SpaceX successfully landed the first stage of the Super Heavy rocket for the second time in history. The module returned to the launch site and was caught in the air by mechanical arms.
Starship is a two-stage mega-rocket with a height of 404 feet, whose first stage is the Super Heavy booster powered by 33 Raptor methane-liquid oxygen engines. The second stage is the actual spacecraft with six similar engines.
The tested rocket was an experimental vehicle with new elements introduced after the November trial. The propulsion system was redesigned, the fuel tank volume was increased by 25%, vacuum insulation was applied to the fuel lines, a new engine power system was introduced, and the propulsion avionics module was improved. SpaceX emphasizes that these changes aim to improve the rocket's reliability and efficiency.
