SpaceX's latest Starship test flight ends with another explosion

The test flight ended in failure as the rocket spun out of control and disintegrated during re-entry over the Indian Ocean

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Morocco attracts 150 aerospace firms

Morocco is cementing its position as a global aerospace hub after attracting 150 companies operating factories nationwide and generating 2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion) in annual revenue, a Moroccan Minister has said. Speaking to French newspaper 'Le Point' at the renowned Paris Air Show, Minister of Industry and Commerce Ryad Mezzour said these projects are concentrated in Casablanca, Tangier, Rabat and Fez In his comments, published by Morocco's newspapers, he said these enterprises provide full-time employment to 26,000 individuals and that their primary focus include producing fuselages, structural components, interior furnishings, and wiring systems. Mezzour also highlighted collaboration between national carrier Royal Air Maroc (RAM) and French aerospace giant Safran concerning the CFM engine. 'During French President Emmanuel Macron's visit to Morocco last October, an agreement was signed extending the partnership to the next-generation CFM-Leap engine,' the Minister said. 'Morocco's competitive edge lies in its ability to handle advanced technology, with 23,000 engineers graduating annually, 400 of whom enter the aerospace field…production costs are competitive at €25 per hour, compared to €100-120 in Europe or the US,' he said. Looking ahead, the minister outlined ambitious plans: 'We will expand our offer to cabin fittings, landing gear manufacturing, and within ten years, we think we can offer a final assembly line for commercial aircraft.' He revealed that RAM is currently exploring the acquisition of the Airbus A220, a narrow-body jet well-suited for its European routes. 'A study is underway by RAM for procuring the Airbus A220, a small-to-medium range jet suited for its European network,' he said. (Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon) (

Zawya

17 hours ago

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SpaceX Starship rocket explodes in setback to Musk's Mars mission

SpaceX's massive Starship spacecraft exploded into a dramatic fireball during testing in Texas late on Wednesday, the latest in a series of setbacks for billionaire Elon Musk's Mars rocket program. The explosion occurred around 11 p.m. local time while Starship was on a test stand at its Brownsville, Texas Starbase while preparing for the tenth test flight, SpaceX said in a post on Musk's social-media platform X. The company attributed it to a "major anomaly,' and said all personnel were safe. 'Preliminary data suggests that a nitrogen COPV in the payload bay failed below its proof pressure,' Musk said in a post on X, in a reference to a nitrogen gas storage unit known as a Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel. 'If further investigation confirms that this is what happened, it is the first time ever for this design,' he continued. SpaceX didn't immediately respond to a request for further comment. The Starship rocket appeared to experience at least two explosions in quick succession, lighting up the night sky and sending debris flying, according to video capturing the moment it exploded. The 400-foot (122-meter) tall Starship rocket system is at the core of Musk's goal of sending humans to Mars. But it has been beset by a string of failures this year. In late May, SpaceX's Starship rocket spun out of control about halfway through a flight without achieving some of its most important testing goals. The Starship 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. Two months earlier, the spacecraft exploded in space minutes after lifting off from Texas, prompting the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to halt air traffic in parts of Florida. Videos on social media showed fiery debris streaking through the dusk skies near south Florida and the Bahamas after Starship broke up in space shortly after it began to spin uncontrollably with its engines cut off, a SpaceX live stream of the mission showed. Musk called that explosion "a minor setback." The FAA said earlier this month that it had closed an agency-required investigation into the mishap, citing the probable cause as a hardware failure in one of the engines. SpaceX identified eight corrective actions to prevent a recurrence and the FAA said it verified SpaceX implemented those prior to the late May Starship mission. In January, a Starship rocket broke up in space minutes after launching from Texas, raining debris over Caribbean islands and causing minor damage to a car in the Turks and Caicos Islands. (Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru and Cassel Bryan-Low in London; Editing by Joe Brock, Aidan Lewis, Alexandra Hudson)

Zawya

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Amazon to invest $233mln in India to expand operations infrastructure, improve tech

Amazon will invest more than 20 billion rupees ($233 million) in India in 2025 to expand and update its operations infrastructure, develop new technology for its fulfilment network and improve delivery safety, it said on Thursday. The investment builds on top of Amazon's prior investments for the creation of an operations network to deliver to all serviceable pin-codes in the country, it added. In June 2023, the e-commerce major - which competes with Walmart's Flipkart and billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail in India - had said it will take its investments in the country to $26 billion by 2030, without providing a breakdown. The new investment will be used to launch new sites and upgrade existing facilities across its fulfilment and delivery network, improving speed and processing capacity, it said. Additionally, Amazon plans to use technology to alert delivery associates about unsafe speeds and ensure equitable distribution of delivery routes. Some of the funds will also be used to expand initiatives to improve the health and financial well-being of its employees, the company said. In March, India's information technology ministry said Amazon's cloud services provider, Amazon Web Services, will invest about $8.2 billion in the country. ($1 = 86.7100 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Ananta Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)