Latest news with #Huot
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
SpaceX's Ninth Starship Test Flight Delivers Mixed Results
In its ninth test flight, SpaceX's launch vehicle Starship once again reached space, surpassing problems that prematurely ended its two previous test launches. But as with those ill-fated preceding flights, in this one, Starship still failed to reach the ground intact. Instead the vehicle spun out of control and disintegrated during atmospheric reentry. Although each Starship test thus far has succeeded in demonstrating powerful new technical advances that are crucial for the program's further progress, this marks the third flight in a row in which the titanic vehicle suffered a 'rapid unscheduled disassembly' that sent fiery debris cascading down to Earth. All that effort, it's hoped, will prove worthwhile if or when Starship enters regular operations because SpaceX aims to make the vehicle, by far, the largest and most capable fully reusable spacecraft ever flown. In the latest test, around 50 minutes after launch, SpaceX confirmed that Starship met its demise. At first, everything in the vehicle's flight appeared to be going well. Starship—a 40-story-tall 'stack' that is composed of a giant, 33-engine Super Heavy booster and a 171-foot-long spacecraft powered by six additional engines—lifted off as planned from SpaceX's launch site in Starbase, Tex., at 7:37 P.M. EDT on Tuesday. But cheers were somewhat subdued until about 10 minutes after launch—when operators officially determined that the spacecraft's trajectory was nominal, taking it on a ballistic suborbital path through outer space. [Sign up for Today in Science, a free daily newsletter] 'Ship engine cutoff—three most beautiful words in the English language,' declared Dan Huot, a communications manager at SpaceX, during the company's livestream of the flight test near the launch site. Around him, sighs of relief could be heard as SpaceX employees began to ascertain that the day's flight would not be a repeat of the previous two, each of which had resulted in the vehicle exploding over the Atlantic Ocean less than 10 minutes after launch. Around 18 minutes after Tuesday's launch, however, issues began to emerge. First, operators decided not to deploy Starlink satellite demonstrations as planned because of a stuck payload door. Then, about a half an hour after launch, SpaceX mission control reported that suspected propellant leaks were driving the vehicle into a spin, which doomed it to burn up in the atmosphere during reentry—raining debris over the Indian Ocean. 'We're not going to get all of that reentry data that we're still really looking forward to,' Huot admitted in the livestream. 'This is a new generation of ship that ... we're really trying to put through the wringer, as there's a whole lot we still need to learn.' Meanwhile, although the Starship vehicle itself showed improved performance, the Super Heavy booster that helped it reach space ran into problems of its own. Moments after firing its engines to come in for a landing in the Atlantic Ocean, the booster instead broke apart. This wasn't entirely unexpected; in keeping with SpaceX's 'test to failure' approach, the Super Heavy had attempted to reenter in a different, potentially fuel-saving orientation that subjected the booster to more intense aerodynamic forces. Despite its unplanned disassembly, the booster did mark a significant milestone for SpaceX: for the first time, it flew with a nearly full suite of flight-proven engines that were previously used during Starship's seventh test. And the booster remains a marvelous demonstration of SpaceX's innovation; a Super Heavy previously made spaceflight history when it became the first rocket ever to be caught in midair with two mechanical arms. In the new launch, the Super Heavy was able to do its intended jobs of bringing Starship to space and testing new reentry techniques, explained Jessie Anderson, SpaceX's senior manufacturing engineering manager, during the flight's livestream. 'There's always a chance we don't reach every objective that we set for ourselves,' Anderson added, 'but success comes from what we learn on days like today.' On X, former NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver praised SpaceX's transparency but noted these were 'not the results we were hoping for.' Garver was instrumental in forging the space agency's partnership with SpaceX, which helped spark the company's unprecedented dominance of commercial launch services upon which NASA now heavily relies. Starship is the prized cornerstone of SpaceX's ambitious plan to build human settlements on Mars and is also slated to ferry crews to the lunar surface in a couple of years for NASA's Artemis III mission. Given the high stakes for the vehicle, its test program's mixed results are disappointing, to say the least. Notably, the previous two attempts, Flights 7 and 8, each ended with two spectacular explosions over the Atlantic Ocean. For Flight 8 in particular, the engines shut down unexpectedly minutes after launch, causing the spacecraft to essentially fall apart and self-destruct in midair. SpaceX received some public backlash after the spacecraft debris, which the company claimed would pose minimal risks, led to multiple midflight diversions for passenger airplanes that were under threat. Nevertheless, SpaceX appeared stalwart and even optimistic about Flights 7 and 8, calling the latter's mishap an 'energetic event' that occurred because of hardware complications. Last week the company said both explosions had a 'distinctly different' cause. And in a press release that followed the launch of Flight 9, it noted that Flight 8 greatly informed the upgrades and modifications to Starship for the latest test. 'Developmental testing by definition is unpredictable,' SpaceX said in a prelaunch press release for Flight 9. 'But by putting hardware in a flight environment as frequently as possible, we're able to quickly learn and execute design changes as we seek to bring Starship online as a fully and rapidly reusable vehicle.' What does Starship's questionable status mean for SpaceX's long-touted goal of 'making life multiplanetary'? If anything, it suggests the company's projections for the vehicle's regular, routine operation have been and remain unrealistically optimistic. Last year SpaceX founder Elon Musk stated in a social media post that the company plans to launch 'about five' uncrewed Starships to Mars in two years. In another post shortly after Flight 9's mixed results, he touted the vehicle's partial success and predicted that the next few flights would occur at a fast pace of about one per month. Whether or not such haste is feasible, it would certainly be desirable, given the pressure SpaceX faces to deliver on its lofty promises.
Scientific American
28-05-2025
- Science
- Scientific American
SpaceX's Ninth Starship Test Flight Delivers Mixed Results
In its ninth test flight, SpaceX 's launch vehicle Starship once again reached space, surpassing problems that prematurely ended its two previous test launches. But as with those ill-fated preceding flights, in this one, Starship still failed to reach the ground intact. Instead the vehicle spun out of control and disintegrated during atmospheric reentry. Although each Starship test thus far has succeeded in demonstrating powerful new technical advances that are crucial for the program's further progress, this marks the third flight in a row in which the titanic vehicle suffered a 'rapid unscheduled disassembly' that sent fiery debris cascading down to Earth. All that effort, it's hoped, will prove worthwhile if or when Starship enters regular operations because SpaceX aims to make the vehicle, by far, the largest and most capable fully reusable spacecraft ever flown. In the latest test, around 50 minutes after launch, SpaceX confirmed that Starship met its demise. At first, everything in the vehicle's flight appeared to be going well. Starship —a 40-story-tall 'stack' that is composed of a giant, 33-engine Super Heavy booster and a 171-foot-long spacecraft powered by six additional engines—lifted off as planned from SpaceX's launch site in Starbase, Tex., at 7:37 P.M. EDT on Tuesday. But cheers were somewhat subdued until about 10 minutes after launch—when operators officially determined that the spacecraft's trajectory was nominal, taking it on a ballistic suborbital path through outer space. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. 'Ship engine cutoff—three most beautiful words in the English language,' declared Dan Huot, a communications manager at SpaceX, during the company's livestream of the flight test near the launch site. Around him, sighs of relief could be heard as SpaceX employees began to ascertain that the day's flight would not be a repeat of the previous two, each of which had resulted in the vehicle exploding over the Atlantic Ocean less than 10 minutes after launch. Around 18 minutes after Tuesday's launch, however, issues began to emerge. First, operators decided not to deploy Starlink satellite demonstrations as planned because of a stuck payload door. Then, about a half an hour after launch, SpaceX mission control reported that suspected propellant leaks were driving the vehicle into a spin, which doomed it to burn up in the atmosphere during reentry—raining debris over the Indian Ocean. 'We're not going to get all of that reentry data that we're still really looking forward to,' Huot admitted in the livestream. 'This is a new generation of ship that ... we're really trying to put through the wringer, as there's a whole lot we still need to learn.' Meanwhile, although the Starship vehicle itself showed improved performance, the Super Heavy booster that helped it reach space ran into problems of its own. Moments after firing its engines to come in for a landing in the Atlantic Ocean, the booster instead broke apart. This wasn't entirely unexpected; in keeping with SpaceX's 'test to failure' approach, the Super Heavy had attempted to reenter in a different, potentially fuel-saving orientation that subjected the booster to more intense aerodynamic forces. Despite its unplanned disassembly, the booster did mark a significant milestone for SpaceX: for the first time, it flew with a nearly full suite of flight-proven engines that were previously used during Starship's seventh test. And the booster remains a marvelous demonstration of SpaceX's innovation; a Super Heavy previously made spaceflight history when it became the first rocket ever to be caught in midair with two mechanical arms. In the new launch, the Super Heavy was able to do its intended jobs of bringing Starship to space and testing new reentry techniques, explained Jessie Anderson, SpaceX's senior manufacturing engineering manager, during the flight's livestream. 'There's always a chance we don't reach every objective that we set for ourselves,' Anderson added, 'but success comes from what we learn on days like today.' On X, former NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver praised SpaceX's transparency but noted these were 'not the results we were hoping for.' Garver was instrumental in forging the space agency's partnership with SpaceX, which helped spark the company's unprecedented dominance of commercial launch services upon which NASA now heavily relies. Starship is the prized cornerstone of SpaceX's ambitious plan to build human settlements on Mars and is also slated to ferry crews to the lunar surface in a couple of years for NASA's Artemis III mission. Given the high stakes for the vehicle, its test program's mixed results are disappointing, to say the least. Notably, the previous two attempts, Flights 7 and 8, each ended with two spectacular explosions over the Atlantic Ocean. For Flight 8 in particular, the engines shut down unexpectedly minutes after launch, causing the spacecraft to essentially fall apart and self-destruct in midair. SpaceX received some public backlash after the spacecraft debris, which the company claimed would pose minimal risks, led to multiple midflight diversions for passenger airplanes that were under threat. Nevertheless, SpaceX appeared stalwart and even optimistic about Flights 7 and 8, calling the latter's mishap an ' energetic event ' that occurred because of hardware complications. Last week the company said both explosions had a ' distinctly different ' cause. And in a press release that followed the launch of Flight 9, it noted that Flight 8 greatly informed the upgrades and modifications to Starship for the latest test. 'Developmental testing by definition is unpredictable,' SpaceX said in a prelaunch press release for Flight 9. 'But by putting hardware in a flight environment as frequently as possible, we're able to quickly learn and execute design changes as we seek to bring Starship online as a fully and rapidly reusable vehicle.' What does Starship's questionable status mean for SpaceX's long-touted goal of ' making life multiplanetary '? If anything, it suggests the company's projections for the vehicle's regular, routine operation have been and remain unrealistically optimistic. Last year SpaceX founder Elon Musk stated in a social media post that the company plans to launch 'about five' uncrewed Starships to Mars in two years. In another post shortly after Flight 9's mixed results, he touted the vehicle's partial success and predicted that the next few flights would occur at a fast pace of about one per month. Whether or not such haste is feasible, it would certainly be desirable, given the pressure SpaceX faces to deliver on its lofty promises.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
On Ninth Test Flight, SpaceX's Starship Rocket Survives Launch But Not Space
PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing. SpaceX launched its Starship rocket for the ninth time tonight, and for the first time since the sixth flight in November, that enormous launch vehicle's second stage reached space intact. But then things went awry as the upper stage spun out of control and burned up on atmospheric re-entry. This was not the sequel SpaceX had hoped to stage to the previous two test flights in January and March. Both ended early when Starship's second stage exploded during its climb to space, leaving trails of glowing debris re-entering the atmosphere over the Caribbean and forcing the diversion or delay of dozens of airline flights. Tuesday's flight lifted off at 6:36 p.m. Central time from SpaceX's Starbase facility at Boca Chica, Texas, following two brief holds to troubleshoot ground equipment. The 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines in the 403-foot-tall rocket's booster—the same first stage used in January's launch—sent it arcing out over the Gulf of Mexico and up to Starship's "hotstage" cutover, where the second stage's engines ignite while still attached to the first stage. The company did not attempt to catch the booster with the 'chopsticks' arms of its launch tower so it could test a landing burn with an engine out. The booster did not survive that test, instead exploding before it could finish that burn and softly land in the water. Starship's second stage appeared to be doing much better, with its six Raptors putting it into the planned suborbital trajectory. 'Ship engine cutoff, the three most beautiful words in the English language,' SpaceX launch commentator Dan Huot exhaled on the company's livestream. But things went sideways from then on, figuratively and literally. SpaceX could not complete the next test planned in this mission, deploying simulated Starlink satellites, after the payload bay door failed to open properly. Huot reached for the obligatory space-sci-fi reference: 'HAL told me no, said I'm sorry Dan, I can't do that.' SpaceX's plans for its broadband satellite constellation include being able to launch at least 50 upgraded Starlinks in one Starship flight. In 2023, Elon Musk suggested the first such launch could happen in 2024; Tuesday's flight was supposed to advance that aimed-for upgrade a little closer to reality. After a break in video coverage while Starship was in darkness above the Earth, the stream then revealed that Starship's upper stage had begun whirling out of control. 'We did spring a leak in some of the fuel tank systems inside of Starship,' Huot reported. 'At this point, we've essentially lost our attitude control with Starship.' That put an end to the rest of the testing planned for the mission and ensured a fiery doom for Starship. Increasingly intermittent video, relayed via Starlink, showed the vehicle wreathed in brightly colored plasma, with one of its control fins disintegrating from that heat; telemetry stopped with whatever was left of Starship about 37 miles above the Indian Ocean. Musk put an optimistic spin on the flight in a post on X Tuesday evening: 'Starship made it to the scheduled ship engine cutoff, so big improvement over last flight!' The CEO also confirmed Huot's report of a tank leak. 'Leaks caused loss of main tank pressure during the coast and re-entry phase,' Musk continued. 'Lot of good data to review.' This footage could not have been comfortable viewing at NASA, because the space agency is also counting on the rocket. In 2021, NASA inked a $2.89 billion contract with SpaceX in 2021 to develop a version of Starship's upper stage as a crewed lunar lander for its Artemis return to the Moon. Two years later, the space agency awarded a $3.4 billion contract to Blue Origin in 2023 to develop a second lunar lander to fly on that firm's New Glenn rocket. President Trump's nominee to head NASA, billionaire payments executive and private astronaut Jared Isaacman, reposted a screengrab of one of Starship's final moments. 'Pretty incredible to get this kind of footage from the extreme environment of reentry. Appreciate the transparency—and bringing us space enthusiasts along through the highs and lows of a test program,' he tweeted. Isaacman, who has flown to space twice aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon in missions he bankrolled himself, voiced confidence in the future of America's private space industry, which now extends well beyond SpaceX. 'Some may focus on the lows, but behind the efforts of Starship—and other programs like New Glenn, Neutron, Vulcan, Terran, Stoke, etc—is a massive space economy taking shape: tens of thousands of jobs, billions in private investment, all aimed at truly opening the last great frontier,' he wrote. 'When these capabilities arrive, they will spearhead a new era of exploration and discovery—and the lows will become a chapter in a much longer story.'
Time of India
28-05-2025
- Science
- Time of India
Watch: SpaceX's Starship spirals uncontrollably as fuel leaks in dramatic footage
SpaceX's 9th test flight fails SpaceX's Starship's ninth test flight started smoothly, leading many to believe it might be successful, but then the real trouble began. After the last two test flights ended prematurely with the destruction of the aircraft, Tuesday's Starship successfully reached orbit. However, the spacecraft failed to fully open its payload bay door, blocking the planned release of simulated Starlink satellites. Around 30 minutes into the mission, SpaceX confirmed a fuel tank leak aboard the vehicle. — AFP (@AFP) In the footage, the first-stage Super Heavy booster exploded shortly before its expected splashdown, and fuel leaks on the upper-stage vehicle caused it to spin uncontrollably before its planned re-entry through Earth's atmosphere. The company posted a statement on X reading, "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.' 'We've been dealing with some leaks on the Ship,' SpaceX communications manager Dan Huot said on the livestream. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Dermatologista recomenda: simples truque elimina o fungo facilmente Acabe com os Fungo Undo 'This is also what led to that loss of attitude control. So at this point, we are kind of in a spin.' Due to the issue, mission controllers scrapped a planned demonstration to reignite one of Starship's Raptor engines while in orbit. Despite the complications, Starship is still on course to re-enter Earth's atmosphere and splash down in the Indian Ocean. However, the uncontrolled spin raises serious concerns about its heat shield surviving the descent. 'As we are not able to control the attitude of the ship as we get into entry, it will enter in whatever orientation it is in at the time, which does not bode well for the ship's heat shield,' Huot said. 'So it is definitely coming down. It is definitely heading to the Indian Ocean, but our chances of making it all the way down are pretty slim.'
Saudi Gazette
07-03-2025
- Science
- Saudi Gazette
SpaceX's Starship spacecraft explodes midflight for a second time, disrupting Florida air traffic
HOUSTON — A SpaceX Starship spacecraft, the upper portion of the most powerful launch system ever built, exploded during its eighth test flight Thursday, disrupting air traffic and marking the second consecutive failure for the vehicle this year. The uncrewed Starship mission lifted off at 5:30 p.m. CT (6:30 p.m. ET) from SpaceX's Starbase facility in South Texas, with the spacecraft riding atop a 232-foot-tall (71-meter-tall) Super Heavy rocket booster. After about 2 ½ minutes of firing, the Super Heavy booster separated as planned from the Starship's upper stage, setting itself up for a successful landing within the 'chopstick' arms of 'Mechazilla,' or SpaceX's launch tower near Brownsville, Texas. It's the third time SpaceX has successfully executed the chopsticks booster catch. But less than 10 minutes into the flight, the Starship craft, which had continued on toward space, began to experience issues. Several of the vehicle's engines visibly cut out during the livestream, and the ship began to tumble before SpaceX lost contact with it. 'Once you lose enough of those center engines, you're going to lose attitude control,' said Dan Huot, SpaceX communications manager, on the livestream. 'And so we did see the ship start to go into a spin, and at this point, we have lost contact with the ship.' The loss of signal occurred at roughly the same point during this mission as with Flight 7 in January, when Starship exploded over populated islands in Turks and Caicos, littering the islands with debris. It has not been confirmed where exactly the vehicle exploded during Thursday's mission. But the explosion was visible from parts of Florida and over the Caribbean, according to reports from residents of those locations that were shared with CNN. The Federal Aviation Administration halted flights into Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, and Orlando airports Thursday evening for 'falling space debris' until 8 p.m. ET. The FAA also temporarily kept flights from departing from Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport and Miami International Airport. Flights leaving those airports were still delayed on average by 30 and 45 minutes, respectively, as of Thursday night. 'We've got a lot of measures in place, like debris response areas, where we coordinate very closely with air traffic control,' Huot said on the livestream. 'We have a lot of measures put (in place) before we ever launch a rocket to make sure that we're keeping the public safe. Those worked last time and they're actively in work right now.' SpaceX shared an update with a few details on the incident several hours after the flight. 'Prior to the end of the ascent burn, an energetic event in the aft portion of Starship resulted in the loss of several Raptor engines,' according to a statement from SpaceX. 'This in turn led to a loss of attitude control and ultimately a loss of communications with Starship. Final contact with Starship came approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds after liftoff.' SpaceX said that Starship flew within a designated launch corridor. 'Any surviving debris would have fallen within the pre-planned Debris Response Area,' according to the statement. 'There are no toxic materials present in the debris and no significant impacts expected to occur to marine species or water quality. If you believe you have identified a piece of debris, please contact your local authorities or the SpaceX Debris Hotline at 1-866-623-0234 or at recovery@ Meanwhile, the FAA is requiring SpaceX to perform a mishap investigation into the loss of the Starship vehicle, according to a statement released by the agency. 'A mishap investigation is designed to enhance public safety, determine the root cause of the event, and identify corrective actions to avoid it from happening again,' according to the statement. 'The FAA will be involved in every step of the SpaceX-led mishap investigation process and must approve SpaceX's final report, including any corrective actions. A return to flight is based on the FAA determining that any system, process, or procedure related to the mishap does not affect public safety.' Thursday's launch was SpaceX's second go at getting Flight 8 off the ground. The company waved off a Monday attempt due to 'too many question marks,' according to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Thursday's launch occurred seven weeks after an explosive mishap prematurely ended Starship's seventh test flight, raining debris over the islands of Turks and Caicos on January 16. The FAA — which licenses commercial rocket launches — is still overseeing an investigation into the incident, but the agency gave SpaceX the green light on February 28 to launch Flight 8. The agency noted that the probe into the Flight 7 mishap was ongoing, but the FAA determined SpaceX had 'met all safety, environmental and other licensing requirements for the suborbital test flight,' according to a statement. In its statement to CNN given after the January Flight 7 mishap, the FAA said that it told the Turks and Caicos government that the archipelago was located within a potential hazard area related to the Starship launch. The agency also said that, before the test flight launched, it required SpaceX to map out 'hazard areas sufficient to ensure that the probability of casualty to a member of the public on land or on board a maritime vessel does not exceed one in one million.' 'No Caribbean islands, including Turks and Caicos, exceeded this threshold,' the agency said. The seventh test flight also exploded less than 10 minutes into flight. The company believes the root cause was a leak that occurred in the rear section of the vehicle near a tank containing superchilled liquid oxygen, or a form of rocket propellant. While no property damage or injuries were reported, one vehicle was struck on the island of South Caicos, and debris caused brief flight disruptions as air traffic controllers rushed to reroute planes away from the site of the explosion. However, residents of the archipelago of Turks and Caicos told CNN they are still finding debris from the spacecraft littering beaches and roadways. The local government worked with SpaceX to craft a debris recovery plan. However, the contents of the plan have not been made public and it's not clear who is paying for the cleanup effort. Neither SpaceX nor the Turks and Caicos government responded to requests for comment on the plan. A Turks and Caicos government account on Instagram shared an advisory to the public Thursday regarding the Flight 8 incident. 'We wish to advise the public that this evening's SpaceX launch appears to have broken up in flight,' the advisory read. 'We are in contact with the US FAA, SpaceX and UK agency leads to confirm the position. Post-incident protocols have been engaged. The National Security Secretariat will continue to keep the public apprised as we work to ensure the safety and security of our Islands.' SpaceX has long embraced an engineering and development philosophy it calls 'rapid iterative development.' The goal has been to rapidly build Starship prototypes and put them on the launchpad with a willingness to blow them up. What's different about the last Starship mission in January and Thursday's flight is where and how the debris fell. While the first test flight of Starship and Super Heavy blew up a launchpad at SpaceX's Starbase facilities in 2023, January's Flight 7 and Thursday's Flight 8 both allowed Starship to travel out over the Atlantic and Caribbean before exploding near populated islands. Thursday's mishap raises questions about why the FAA allowed Starship to launch before the agency's investigation into the Flight 7 mishap was completed — and whether experimental rockets should be allowed to fly over populated areas. Thursday's flight test was intended to put Starship through its paces so mission teams could zero in on weak points. Engineers have removed a large number of heat shield tiles from Starship to test vulnerable areas across the spacecraft. The black hexagonal tiles are designed to protect the vehicle as it experiences temperatures exceeding 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit (1,427 degrees Celsius) when reentering Earth's atmosphere. The failed test flight in January spurred SpaceX to make other upgrades and changes, including new vents and a 'purge system' designed to prevent a fire, according to the company. SpaceX said what mission teams learned from the Flight 7 mishap prompted them to alter lines that feed fuel to some of Starship's engines and tweak propellant temperatures. Another change adjusted the vehicle's 'operating thrust target' — or how much power SpaceX aims for the engines to generate during flight. Meanwhile, the Super Heavy booster has some upgrades of its own, including a more powerful flight computer. About 17 ½ minutes after lifting off, Starship was planning to attempt to deploy a batch of mock Starlink satellites for the first time. Like the spacecraft, the demo satellites weren't intended to reach orbit. But similar to the seventh flight test, Flight 8's objectives were not tested before the incident occurred. CNN's Pete Muntean contributed to this report. Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. This story has been updated with additional context on airspace disruptions that occurred as a result of the explosion. Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated when SpaceX stood down on an earlier attempt at Flight 8. — CNN
