Latest news with #SpaceX-led
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
FAA investigating SpaceX Starship Flight 8 explosion that disrupted commercial flights
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. SpaceX's latest Starship to attempt to reach space exploded nine minutes after its launch this week, leaving a trail of debris in its wake. Airports in Florida were forced to halt flights as the threat from impacts extended south to the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands. Now the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is again requiring SpaceX to perform a mishap investigation into what led its eighth Starship test flight to end with a loss of the vehicle. The rocket launched toward space Thursday (March 7) from SpaceX's Starbase facility near Boca Chica Beach in South Texas. It was the company's second launch in a row to conclude with an explosion (its Starship Flight 7 test met a similar fate in January) and came as the investigation into the previous "mishap" had yet to be concluded. "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," the FAA wrote in a 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." Starship was following its planned trajectory when, prior to the cut off of an ascent burn, an "energetic event" in the rare of the Starship caused the loss of several of its engines," wrote SpaceX in a post-flight report published on its website. Communications were subsequently lost with the steel spacecraft, with final contact occurring at 9 minutes and 30 seconds into the flight. "Starship flew within a designated launch corridor to safeguard the public both on the ground, on water and in the air," the company wrote. "Following the anomaly, SpaceX teams immediately began coordination with the FAA, ATO (air traffic control) and other safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses." Airports in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and Orlando slowed aircraft outside the area where space vehicle debris was falling or stopped aircraft before their departure in response to an alert sent out by the FAA. Once the threat from debris passed, normal operations resumed. "A Debris Response Area is activated only if the space vehicle experiences an anomaly with debris falling outside of the identified closed aircraft hazard areas. It allows the FAA to direct aircraft to exit the area and prevent others from entering," the administration wrote in its statement. RELATED STORIES: — SpaceX loses Starship rocket stage again, but catches giant Super Heavy booster during Flight 8 launch (video) — Starship and Super Heavy explained — Will 2025 be the year of Starship? SpaceX's megarocket is growing up. If any debris made it to the ground, SpaceX said it would have fallen within a planned area. Any surviving pieces did not include toxic materials and was safe to sea animals and water quality, according to SpaceX. Still, if any debris is found, the company said it should be reported to local authorities or the SpaceX Debris Hotline (1-866-623-0234 or recovery@ The Starship's launch booster, which SpaceX calls Super Heavy, successfully separated from the vehicle and for only the third time, executed a return to its launch site, where it was caught in mid-air by chopstick-like arms on its launch tower. "With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and [Thursday's] flight will help us improve Starship's reliability," SpaceX wrote. "We will conduct a thorough investigation, in coordination with the FAA, and implement corrective actions to make improvements on future Starship flight tests." SpaceX's ability to fly Starship again will be based on the FAA determining that "any system, process or procedure related to the mishap does not affect public safety," FAA officials wrote.
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Another SpaceX Starship lost during test flight despite successful booster catch
SpaceX lost contact again in its latest test flight of the Starship and Super Heavy rocket from Texas. The rocket was making its eighth attempt, and SpaceX was able to perform the third-ever catch of the booster back at the tower. The suborbital test flight came just under two months since the last attempt ended explosively over the Atlantic. The rocket lifted off just after 6:30 p.m. EST from SpaceX's Starbase launch site in Boca Chica, Texas. The flight profile once again called for the Super Heavy booster to fly back to the launch tower caught on the tower's pivoting arms called chopsticks. The upper stage Starship then was supposed to continue halfway around the planet to attempt a water landing in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia. But teams lost contact again over the Atlantic. 'Unfortunately it seems as we lost the attitude control of the ship,' said SpaceX commentator Kate Tice. Fellow commentator Dan Huot said telemetry showed engines going out with only about 20 seconds left in the upper stage's ascent burn. 'We did see the ship start to go into a spin and at this point we have lost contact with the ship,' he said. The failure follows a similar pattern seen during the Jan. 16 launch, which also saw a successful catch of the Super Heavy booster, but the Starship spacecraft blew up after passing over the Gulf of Mexico with scenes of the streaking debris posted to social media from places like the Turks & Caicos. The event grounded the in-development rocket, but the Federal Aviation Administration cleared it to launch again as of Feb. 26. 'After completing the required and comprehensive safety review, the FAA determined the SpaceX Starship vehicle can return to flight operations while the investigation into the Jan. 16 Starship Flight 7 mishap remains open,' the FAA stated. 'The FAA is overseeing the SpaceX-led investigation.' The flight continues progress for Elon Musk's heavy-lift rocket program. 'Several hardware and operational changes have been made to increase reliability of the upper stage,' SpaceX posted on its website. To support an increased pace of launches in the coming years, SpaceX continues to move forward with a second launch site in Texas and announced $1.8 billion in infrastructure to assist in launch sites from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. It hopes to launch from the KSC site at Launch Complex 39-A before the end of the year. For this test launch, though, the objectives that were not reached during the last attempt are on tap again. That includes a test run of payload deployment and reentry experiments that the company hopes will lead to a future launch with the upper stage landing back at the Texas launch site. Four test payloads will simulate the size of SpaceX's Starlink satellites and follow the same trajectory of the upper Starship stage so they they burn up on reentry. 'Developmental testing by definition is unpredictable,' SpaceX posted. 'But by putting flight 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.' _____
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Watch Live: SpaceX retries for Starship launch 2 months after explosive test flight
SpaceX scrubbed a Monday launch attempt of its Starship and Super Heavy rocket from Texas, but will try again today to get its eighth suborbital test flight in the air, two months after attempt No. 7 ended explosively over the Atlantic. The 60-minute launch window opens at 6:30 p.m. EST from SpaceX's Starbase launch site in Boca Chica, Texas. The flight profile once again calls for the Super Heavy booster to fly back to the launch tower for a potential catch by the tower's pivoting arms called chopsticks. The upper stage Starship will continue on halfway around the planet to attempt a water landing in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia. That Jan. 16 launch saw a successful catch of the Super Heavy booster, but the Starship spacecraft blew up after passing over the Gulf of Mexico with scenes of the streaking debris posted to social media from places like the Turks & Caicos. The event grounded the in-development rocket, but the Federal Aviation Administration cleared it to launch again as of Feb. 26. 'After completing the required and comprehensive safety review, the FAA determined the SpaceX Starship vehicle can return to flight operations while the investigation into the Jan. 16 Starship Flight 7 mishap remains open,' the FAA stated. 'The FAA is overseeing the SpaceX-led investigation.' The flight continues progress for Elon Musk's heavy-lift rocket program. 'Several hardware and operational changes have been made to increase reliability of the upper stage,' SpaceX posted on its website. To support an increased pace of launches in the coming years, SpaceX continues to move forward with a second launch site in Texas and announced $1.8 billion in infrastructure to assist in launch sites from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. It hopes to launch from the KSC site at Launch Complex 39-A before the end of the year. For this test launch, though, the objectives that were not reached during the last attempt are on tap again. That includes a test run of payload deployment and reentry experiments that the company hopes will lead to a future launch with the upper stage landing back at the Texas launch site. Four test payloads will simulate the size of SpaceX's Starlink satellites and follow the same trajectory of the upper Starship stage so they they burn up on reentry. 'Developmental testing by definition is unpredictable,' SpaceX posted. 'But by putting flight 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.'
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
SpaceX set for Starship launch 2 months after explosive test flight
The last time SpaceX launched its Starship and Super Heavy rocket, the upper stage disintegrated spectacularly over the Atlantic. Two months later, SpaceX is set to try again today with less explosive results. The Jan. 16 launch saw a successful catch of the Super Heavy booster back at the Texas launch site, but the Starship spacecraft blew up after passing over the Gulf of Mexico with scenes of the streaking debris posted to social media from places like the Turks & Caicos. The event grounded the in-development rocket, but the Federal Aviation Administration cleared it to launch again as of Feb. 26. 'After completing the required and comprehensive safety review, the FAA determined the SpaceX Starship vehicle can return to flight operations while the investigation into the Jan. 16 Starship Flight 7 mishap remains open,' the FAA stated. 'The FAA is overseeing the SpaceX-led investigation.' Still, the FAA cleared today's attempt, the eighth suborbital launch of the massive rocket, during a 60-minute launch window that opens at 6:30 p.m. EST from Boca Chica, Texas. 'The FAA determined SpaceX met all safety, environmental and other licensing requirements for the suborbital test flight,' the FAA stated. Once again, SpaceX will attempt a catch of the booster, while the upper Starship stage will fly to the east about halfway around the Earth and aim for a water landing in the Indian Ocean west of Australia. 'Several hardware and operational changes have been made to increase reliability of the upper stage,' SpaceX posted on its website. The objectives that were not reached during the last attempt are on tap again. That includes a test run of payload deployment and reentry experiments that the company hopes will lead to a future launch with the upper stage landing back at the Texas launch site. Four test payloads will simulate the size of SpaceX's Starlink satellites and follow the same trajectory of the upper Starship stage so they they burn up on reentry. 'Developmental testing by definition is unpredictable,' SpaceX posted. 'But by putting flight 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.' All test flights to date have taken place from Texas, but SpaceX has two launch sites planned from the Space Coast in Florida. It's already building out a tower at Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39-A adjacent to where it launches Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy missions. It's also aiming to build out a tower at neighboring Cape Canaveral Space Force Station taking over Space Launch Complex 37, which had been the home for United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy's final launches. Environmental impact studies for both sites were started in 2024, but expected to be complete this year. SpaceX's plans are to build up infrastructure in Florida and potentially other launch sites to get to hundreds and eventually thousands of Starship launches a year, part of Musk's goal of creating a colony on Mars. NASA, though, is awaiting a working version of Starship to act as the human landing system for its Artemis III mission, which is aiming to fly as early as mid-2027, and would mark the first time humans, including the first woman, will have set foot on the moon since the end of the Apollo program in 1972. NASA requires SpaceX to perform a successful uncrewed flight of Starship landing on the moon ahead of that mission as well.
