New York: SpaceX, the aerospace firm established by Elon Musk, recently suffered a major setback while conducting a test flight of its Starship rocket. The test, which took place on Thursday, failed when the rocket went out of contact shortly after it was launched and later exploded above Florida around sunset. This is another setback for the company, which has had similar issues in the past.
About two months ago, one of SpaceX’s rockets burst into flames after liftoff off the Turks and Caicos Islands, setting back the company’s hopes. On Thursday, SpaceX launched another attempt at a Starship, but just minutes into liftoff, communication was lost, and the rocket broke apart on re-entry into the atmosphere.
The main agenda of this test flight was to release mock satellites into orbit. The mission was, however, truncated when the rocket had ascended to 90 miles (150 kilometres) altitude before experiencing technical problems. Such mishaps have happened before, according to SpaceX flight commentator Dan Huot, and the firm is still determined to enhance its systems to avoid such future failures.
NASA has already reserved Starship to take astronauts to the Moon by 2030, while Musk hopes to use the spacecraft for future human missions to Mars. SpaceX is currently building Starship, the largest and most capable rocket ever designed for space travel.
This test flight had aboard four mock satellites that look similar to SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites already orbiting Earth. However, technical issues prevented the successful deployment of the satellites. Early investigations indicate that a fuel leak caused a fire, resulting in engine failure and the eventual loss of the spacecraft.
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