Latest news with #SpaceXTeam
CNA
13 hours ago
- Science
- CNA
FAA says probe closed into SpaceX Starship Flight 8
WASHINGTON :The Federal Aviation Administration said on Thursday it closed an agency-required investigation into a SpaceX Starship Flight 8 mishap, citing the probable cause as a hardware failure in one of the engines. SpaceX identified eight corrective actions to prevent a re-occurrence and the FAA said it verified SpaceX implemented those prior to the Starship Flight 9 mission in late May.
The Guardian
28-05-2025
- General
- The Guardian
SpaceX's Starship fails mid-flight in ninth test mission
SpaceX's Starship rocket roared into space from Texas on Tuesday on its ninth unmanned test launch. It flew farther than the previous two attempts that ended in explosive failure, but the booster section lost contact with operators and plunged into the Indian Ocean
Forbes
28-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Elon Musk's SpaceX Starship Explodes Again But Orbits For 46 Minutes
Elon Musk's SpaceX launched its ninth flight test of the Starship vehicle and Super Heavy booster on Tuesday, May 27, but the Starship vehicle broke up over the Indian Ocean 46 minutes after launch. It came after Super Heavy was lost in the Gulf of Mexico instead of returning to the launch pad. It was the first time the reusable rocket had been reused. A two-part launch vehicle, Starship is designed to carry 100 tons to Mars or transport up to 100 people on long-duration, interplanetary flights, according to SpaceX. The vehicle could also be used for point-to-point flights, reducing times for most international trips to just 30 minutes. Flight Test 9 lasted significantly longer than the two previous tests, both of which ended abruptly with Starship exploding over the Caribbean. This time, Starship reached the Indian Ocean before engineers lost contact. The test began with its launch at 6:36 p.m. CDT, after which Super Heavy flew at a higher angle of attack during its descent back to Earth, according to SpaceX, to increase atmospheric drag on the vehicle and thereby reduce propellant use. However, as it relit its engines to land just six minutes after launch, it experienced a "rapid unscheduled disassembly." Despite the mishap, SpaceX called its first-ever reuse with a first flight-proven Super Heavy a "major milestone." Super Heavy is designed to be fully reusable and has already been caught in 'chopsticks' three times since the first successful test on Oct. 13, 2024. Starship is also designed to land, though that has not been tested yet. Starship refers to the upper part of the rocket, where cargo — such as satellites or humans — would be carried, with the section underneath called the Super Heavy booster. When stacked on the launch pad, the entire vehicle stands around 403 feet (123 meters) tall. During this test flight, Starship itself launched perfectly for the eighth consecutive time and reached orbit, but plans to deploy a payload of satellites stalled when the payload bay door failed to open. Instead of a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean, Starship leaked fuel, spun out of control, and made an uncontrolled reentryEngineers lost contact 46 minutes into the flight 46 minutes into the flight, likely disintegrating over the Indian Ocean. Debris was expected to fall within the planned hazard area in the Indian Ocean, according to SpaceX. 'As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly,' read a SpaceX tweet. '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 multi-planetary.' Starship's eighth flight test launched on Mar. 6. After engine problems, it ended in 'rapid unscheduled disassembly,' after which debris was seen from Florida to the Caribbean. According to SpaceX, approximately five and a half minutes into its ascent burn, a flash occurred in one of the engines, resulting in an 'energetic event' that led to the loss of the engine. The vehicle was lost nine and a half minutes into the flight. That followed a similar ending on Jan. 17, when Starship broke up near Haiti. Starship was also tested twice in 2023 and four times in 2024. The Federal Aviation Administration announced in early May that it was increasing the permitted launches per year for Starship from five to 25. It could mean a rapid uptick in Starship testing as preparation continues for its use by NASA for its Artemis III mission, which aims to land two astronauts on the moon in 2027 and, possibly, lead a private mission to Mars. Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
The Independent
28-05-2025
- General
- The Independent
Watch: SpaceX Starship spins out of control in Elon Musk's latest test flight
Elon Musk 's SpaceX Starship rocket spun out of control around halfway through its flight on Tuesday, 27 May, without achieving some of its most important testing goals. The 400-foot-tall (122-metre) rocket system lifted off from the Texas launch site and flew beyond the point of two previous explosive attempts from earlier in 2025. Contact was lost with the 232-foot lower-stage booster during its descent before it plunged into the sea instead of a controlled splashdown, rather than making the controlled splashdown the company had planned. Starship began to spin uncontrollably around 30 minutes into the mission after SpaceX cancelled a plan to deploy eight mock Starlink satellites into space as the rocket's dispenser-like mechanism failed to operate as intended.
CNA
28-05-2025
- Business
- CNA
SpaceX's Starship spins out of control after flying past points of previous failures
STARBASE, Texas :SpaceX's Starship rocket roared into space from Texas on Tuesday but spun out of control about halfway through its flight without achieving some of its most important testing goals, bringing fresh engineering hurdles to CEO Elon Musk's increasingly turbulent Mars rocket program. The 400-foot tall (122 meter) Starship rocket system, the core of Musk's goal of sending humans to Mars, lifted off from SpaceX's Starbase, Texas, launch site, flying beyond the point of two previous explosive attempts earlier this year that sent debris streaking over Caribbean islands and forced dozens of airliners to divert course. For the latest launch, the ninth full test mission of Starship since the first attempt in April 2023, the upper-stage cruise vessel was lofted to space atop a previously flown booster - a first such demonstration of the booster's reusability. But SpaceX lost contact with the 232-foot lower-stage booster during its descent before it plunged into the sea, rather than making the controlled splashdown the company had planned. Starship, meanwhile, continued into suborbital space but began to spin uncontrollably roughly 30 minutes into the mission. The errant spiraling came after SpaceX canceled a plan to deploy eight mock Starlink satellites into space - the rocket's "Pez" candy dispenser-like mechanism failed to work as designed. "Not looking great with a lot of our on-orbit objectives for today," SpaceX broadcaster Dan Huot said on a company livestream. Musk was scheduled to deliver an update on his space exploration ambitions in a speech from Starbase following the test flight, billed as a livestream presentation about "The Road to Making Life Multiplanetary." Hours later, he had yet to give the speech and there was no sign that he intended to do so. In a post on X, Musk touted Starship's scheduled shutdown of an engine in space, a step previous test flights achieved last year. He said a leak on Starship's primary fuel tank led to its loss of control. "Lot of good data to review," he said. "Launch cadence for next 3 flights will be faster, at approximately 1 every 3 to 4 weeks." SpaceX has said the Starship models that have flown this year bear significant design upgrades from previous prototypes, as thousands of company employees work to build a multi-purpose rocket capable of putting massive batches of satellites in space, carrying humans back to the moon and ultimately ferrying astronauts to Mars. RISK-TOLERANT The recent setbacks indicate SpaceX is struggling to overcome a complicated chapter of Starship's multibillion-dollar development. But the company's engineering culture, widely considered more risk-tolerant than many of the aerospace industry's more established players, is built on a flight-testing strategy that pushes spacecraft to the point of failure, then fine-tunes improvements through frequent repetition. Starship's planned trajectory for Tuesday included a nearly full orbit around Earth for a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean to test new designs of its heat shield tiles and revised flaps for steering its blazing re-entry and descent through Earth's atmosphere. But its early demise, appearing as a fireball streaking eastward through the night sky over southern Africa, puts another pause in Musk's speedy development goals for a rocket bound to play a central role in the U.S. space program. NASA plans to use the rocket to land humans on the moon in 2027, though that moon program faces turmoil amid Musk's Mars-focused influence over U.S. President Donald Trump's administration. MISHAP PROBE Federal regulators had granted SpaceX a license for Starship's latest flight attempt four days ago, capping a mishap investigation that had grounded Starship for nearly two months. The last two test flights - in January and March - were cut short moments after liftoff as the vehicles blew to pieces on ascent, raining debris over parts of the Caribbean and disrupting scores of commercial airline flights in the region. The Federal Aviation Administration expanded debris hazard zones around the ascent path for Tuesday's launch. The previous back-to-back failures occurred in early test-flight phases that SpaceX had easily achieved before, in a striking setback to a program that Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur who founded the rocket company in 2002, had sought to accelerate this year. Musk, the world's wealthiest individual and a key supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump, was especially eager for a success after vowing in recent days to refocus his attention on his various business ventures, including SpaceX, following a tumultuous foray into national politics and his attempts at cutting government bureaucracy. Closer to home, Musk also sees Starship as eventually replacing the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as the workhorse in the company's commercial launch business, which already lofts most of the world's satellites and other payloads to low-Earth orbit.
