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Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
SpaceX traces Starship test-stand explosion to failure of pressurized nitrogen tank
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. SpaceX thinks it knows why its newest Starship spacecraft went boom this week. The 171-foot-tall (52-meter-tall) vehicle exploded on a test stand at SpaceX's Starbase site late Wednesday night (June 18) as the company was preparing to ignite its six Raptor engines in a "static fire" trial. A day later, SpaceX narrowed in on a likely cause. "Initial analysis indicates the potential failure of a pressurized tank known as a COPV, or composite overwrapped pressure vessel, containing gaseous nitrogen in Starship's nosecone area, but the full data review is ongoing," the company wrote in an update on Thursday (June 19). "There is no commonality between the COPVs used on Starship and SpaceX's Falcon rockets," the company added. So, launches of the workhorse Falcon 9, which has already flown 75 times in 2025, should not be affected. The Starship explosion did not cause any reported injuries; all SpaceX personnel at Starbase are safe, according to the update. People living around the site, which is near the border city of Brownsville, shouldn't be worried about contamination from the incident, SpaceX said. "Previous independent tests conducted on materials inside Starship, including toxicity analyses, confirm they pose no chemical, biological, or toxicological risks," the company wrote. "SpaceX is coordinating with local, state, and federal agencies, as appropriate, on matters concerning environmental and safety impacts." That said, the explosion did damage the area around the test stand, which is at Starbase's Massey site (not the orbital launch mount area, from which Starship lifts off). "The explosion ignited several fires at the test site which remains clear of personnel and will be assessed once it has been determined to be safe to approach," SpaceX wrote in the update. "Individuals should not attempt to approach the area while safing operations continue." Related Stories: — SpaceX's Starship explodes in Texas during preparations for 10th test flight — SpaceX reached space with Starship Flight 9 launch, then lost control of its giant spaceship (video) — Starship and Super Heavy explained Wednesday night's explosion occurred during preparations for Starship's 10th flight test, which SpaceX had hoped to launch by the end of the month. (Static fires are common prelaunch tests, performed to ensure that engines are ready to fly.) That timeline will now shift to the right, though it's not clear at the moment by how much. The incident was the latest in a series of setbacks for Starship upper stages. SpaceX lost the vehicle — also known as Ship — on the last three Starship flight tests, which launched in January, March and May of this year. Starship's first stage, called Super Heavy, has a better track record of late. For example, on Flight 7 and Flight 8, the huge booster successfully returned to Starbase, where it was caught by the launch tower's "chopstick" arms as planned.
ABC News
28-05-2025
- Business
- ABC News
SpaceX Starship launched on ninth test flight after last two blew up
Starship, the futuristic SpaceX rocket vehicle, has roared into space from Texas on its ninth uncrewed test launch, flying farther than the last two attempts that ended in explosive failure. The two-stage spacecraft, consisting of the Starship vessel mounted atop a towering SpaceX Super Heavy rocket booster, blasted off at about 7:36pm local time on Tuesday in Texas from the company's Starbase launch site on the Gulf Coast. A live SpaceX webcast of the lift-off showed the rocket ship rising from the launch tower into the early evening sky as the Super Heavy's cluster of powerful Raptor engines thundered to life in a ball of flame and billowing clouds of exhaust and water vapour. SpaceX launched the Starship system with a previously flown Super Heavy booster for the first time, aiming to achieve a key demonstration of its reusability. As expected, the 71m first-stage rocket separated from the upper-stage Starship vehicle several minutes after launch and headed back toward Earth. But SpaceX controllers lost contact with the booster during its descent before it presumably plunged into the sea instead of making the controlled splashdown the company planned. The upper-stage Starship vehicle continued to climb to space, reaching its planned suborbital trajectory about nine minutes into the flight. In one test-flight mishap, Starship's payload doors failed to open in order to release a group of simulated satellites. Plans called for Starship to complete its experimental flight of less than 90 minutes with a controlled descent and splashdown in the Indian Ocean. But about a half-hour after launch, SpaceX said its flight team had lost attitude control over Starship, leaving the vehicle in a spin as it continued to head for atmospheric re-entry. "We will not be aligned as we wanted it to be aligned for re-entry," a SpaceX commentator said during the livestream. Federal regulators granted SpaceX a license for Starship's latest flight attempt just four days ago, capping a mishap investigation that had grounded Starship for nearly two months. Its last two test flights — in January and March — were cut short moments after lift-off as the vehicle blew to pieces on its 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, dealing a striking setback to a program that Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur who founded the rocket company in 2002, had sought to accelerate this year. Musk, the world's wealthiest individual, was especially eager for a success after vowing in recent days to refocus his attention on his various business ventures, including SpaceX. He is counting on Starship to fulfil his goal of producing a large, multipurpose next-generation spacecraft capable of sending people and cargo to the Moon later this decade and ultimately flying to Mars. Reuters
Digital Trends
28-05-2025
- General
- Digital Trends
Starship flies again: Check out these spectacular images from 9th rocket test
SpaceX flew the Starship for the ninth time on Tuesday, with the upper-stage Starship spacecraft performing better than its two previous flights. However, the spacecraft's reentry, about 45 minutes into its flight, didn't go as planned, with the vehicle breaking up over the Indian Ocean. The Super Heavy booster, meanwhile, blew up during its descent. The explosion wasn't actually a big surprise as SpaceX was testing a new system that put greater pressure on the vehicle. Recommended Videos As SpaceX assesses all of the data from the ninth flight of the most powerful rocket ever to fly, take a moment to enjoy these stunning scenes captured during the early stages of Tuesday's test mission. The Starship rocket, comprising the upper-stage Starship spacecraft and first-stage Super Heavy booster, heads skyward from SpaceX's Starbase launch site in Boca Chica, Texas, on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. local time. Sixteen seconds into flight, and the rocket is in good shape. The entire vehicle is just over 120 meters tall and creates a record 17 million pounds of thrust at launch. Twenty-eight seconds into flight and the rocket is now traveling at 393 km/h (244 mph). The Super Heavy's Raptor engines burn brightly as the rocket powers the Starship spacecraft to orbit. A view over the launch site from a camera attached to the Starship vehicle. This stunning light show occurred just as the Starship spacecraft separated from the Super Heavy booster. Here we see the first-stage booster returning to Earth at high speed. 'Super Heavy might not have a very smooth ride down, we're putting it through this higher angle of attack …. increasing drag,' a SpaceX commentator noted during the livestream. 'We've done this in wind tunnels, we've done this in computer modeling, it shows that sometimes the control isn't great.' Just over six minutes into the flight, the Super Heavy suffered a catastrophic explosion. It wasn't entirely unexpected, and the SpaceX team will have gathered plenty of data to help it refine the design for the Starship's next test flight.
CBS News
27-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
SpaceX launching Super Heavy-Starship on 9th test flight today after last 2 went down in flames
With Federal Aviation Administration approval, SpaceX readied a gargantuan 400-foot-tall Super Heavy-Starship for its 9th test flight Tuesday — a launch featuring multiple upgrades in the wake of spectacular back-to-back upper stage failures during the previous two flights in January and March. Company founder Elon Musk planned to provide a post-launch update on his long-range plans to "make life multi-planetary," presumably outlining the role the Super Heavy-Starship will play in eventual flights to Mars. He originally planned to speak before the latest launch but decided, without explanation, to hold it up until after the flight. SpaceX readies a Super Heavy-Starship rocket for its ninth test flight from the company's Starbase facility on the Texas Gulf Coast. SpaceX The huge rocket's launching, known as "Integrated Flight Test 9," was targeted for liftoff at 7:30 p.m. EDT from SpaceX's sprawling Boca Chica, Texas, manufacturing-and-flight facility, known as Starbase, on the Texas Gulf Coast. Plans for the latest SpaceX test flight The mission featured the first use of a previously flown 23-story-tall Super Heavy first stage, which flew itself back to capture by giant mechanical arms on the launch tower during the program's seventh test flight in January. For the program's latest launch, the Super Heavy first stage, powered by 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines generating up to 16 million pounds of thrust, will follow the same flight plan as previous missions, propelling the Starship upper stage out of the thick lower atmosphere on an easterly trajectory toward the Straits of Florida. Equipped with six Raptors of its own, the 160-foot-long Starship was expected to separate from its booster about two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff, heading for a sub-orbital trajectory carrying it toward a planned vertical splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The Super Heavy, meanwhile, will use a different method for flipping around for the trip back to the launch site in a bid to save propellants. It also was programmed to fly a much steeper descent than usual to learn more about the stresses it can safely endure. "The booster will attempt to fly at a higher angle of attack during its descent," SpaceX said on its website. "By increasing the amount of atmospheric drag on the vehicle, a higher angle of attack can result in a lower descent speed which in turn requires less propellant for the initial landing burn. "Getting real-world data on how the booster is able to control its flight at this higher angle of attack will contribute to improved performance on future vehicles, including the next generation of Super Heavy." As a result of the high-stress tests, the booster will guide itself to splashdown in the Gulf instead of attempting a launch pad capture where critical infrastructure could be damaged in a landing mishap. For its ninth test flight, the Super Heavy first stage will splash down off the Texas Gulf Coast after boosting the Starship upper stage out of the lower atmosphere. The Starship, meanwhile, will set out on a sub-orbital trajectory for a variety of in-flight tests before splashing down in the Indian Ocean a little more than one hour after launch. SpaceX The Starship will attempt a repeat of the missions planned for the previous two flights, both of which failed before they could reach their planned trajectories. Eight dummy Starlink internet satellites will be released to test the deployment system, a single Raptor engine will be reignited to test its start-up capability in space, multiple heat-shield tiles have been removed to "stress test" vulnerable areas and launch pad capture fittings are in place to learn how they stand up to the space environment. Launch attempt follows two Starship breakups Tuesday's planned launching comes on the heels of back-to-back Starship upper stage breakups during the two previous test flights that generated spectacular showers of flaming debris along the flight paths. Since then, SpaceX engineers carried out extensive testing and implemented multiple upgrades and improvements to minimize the chances for similar failures. The Federal Aviation Administration, which oversaw both failure investigations, gave SpaceX permission to proceed with IFT-9 last week after wrapping up the IFT-8 review. "The FAA conducted a comprehensive safety review of the SpaceX Starship Flight 8 mishap and determined that the company has satisfactorily addressed the causes of the mishap, and therefore, the Starship vehicle can return to flight," the agency said in a statement. "The FAA will verify SpaceX implements all corrective actions." In both of the previous failures, commercial airline traffic in and around the Straits of Florida was held up pending confirmation falling debris was no longer a threat. For the ninth flight, the length of the Aircraft Hazard Area was expanded from about 1,000 statute miles to around 1,840 miles and SpaceX was required to launch the rocket during non-peak air travel periods. Plans for the moon and Mars The Super Heavy-Starship rocket is critical to NASA's plans to land astronauts on the moon in the next few years and to Musk's plans to eventually send humans to Mars. NASA plans to use a variant of the Starship upper stage as a lunar lander in the agency's Artemis program. NASA wants to use its own rocket and crew capsule to ferry astronauts to lunar orbit where the SpaceX lander will be waiting to carry them down to the surface. An artist's impression of a Starship variant on the surface of the moon. NASA/SpaceX The Trump administration wants to cancel NASA's Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule, leaving the future of the Artemis program, as it's currently envisioned, in doubt. For his part, Musk has argued the United States should pass up moon missions, which he called a "distraction," and instead head directly to Mars. In any case, the Super Heavy-Starship rocket is expected to play a major role in future deep space exploration, regardless of the target. But multiple successful test flights will be needed to demonstrate the safety and reliability needed for astronauts and passengers heading to the moon, Mars or beyond. SpaceX made changes after two catastrophic explosions The last two Starships, launched Jan. 16 and March 6, both ended with unrelated catastrophic explosions as they neared their planned sub-orbital trajectories. During the January flight, a propellant leak in an unpressurized "attic" above the Raptor engines led to sustained fires that eventually triggered shutdown of all but one of the spacecraft's engines. Telemetry was lost eight minutes and 20 seconds after launch and moments later, the vehicle broke apart. "The most probable root cause for the loss of ship was identified as a harmonic response several times stronger in flight than had been seen during testing, which led to increased stress on hardware in the propulsion system," SpaceX said on its website. "The subsequent propellant leaks exceeded the venting capability of the ship's attic area and resulted in sustained fires." After extensive ground tests, SpaceX made changes to propellant feedlines, and thrust levels and installed additional vents and a new nitrogen purge system in the attic to reduce the potential for fire. Those fixes appeared to work as expected during the Starship's eighth test flight in March, but the upper stage again suffered a catastrophic failure. This time around, the Starship suffered a "hardware failure in one of the upper stage Raptor engines that resulted in inadvertent propellant mixing and ignition," SpaceX said on its website. To fix the problem, upper stage Raptors now feature a new nitrogen purge system, improvements to the propellant drain system and tighter joints in key areas. SpaceX is also developing an improved Raptor engine that will eliminate several failure modes.
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
How to watch SpaceX's ninth Starship flight test on Tuesday
The FAA last week cleared SpaceX's Starship to fly again after concluding its review of the previous flight, which ended in an explosion, and the next test could now take off as soon as Tuesday. SpaceX is eyeing May 27 for Starship's ninth flight test, with a launch window opening at 7:30PM ET (6:30PM local time for the Texas Starbase). This launch will mark the first time SpaceX reuses a Super Heavy booster; the booster for flight nine previously flew with Starship's seventh flight test earlier this year. While single-use parts have been replaced, SpaceX says it's reusing 29 of the booster's 33 Raptor engines. As always, viewers at home will be able to watch along by tuning into the livestream, starting about 30 minutes before Starship launches. That will be available on SpaceX's website and in a broadcast on its X profile. SpaceX conducted Starship's eighth flight test back in March, but the vehicle ran into some issues a few minutes after launch. The Super Heavy booster was able to return to the launch site after separation from the upper stage and be successfully caught by the tower's "chopstick" arms, but as for the ship itself, several Raptor engines shut off, causing it to tumble and ultimately blow itself up. SpaceX says the issue was likely due to "a hardware failure in one of the upper stage's center Raptor engines that resulted in inadvertent propellant mixing and ignition." It's since made some changes to prevent that from happening again. SpaceX said in an update on May 22 that "engines on the Starship's upper stage will receive additional preload on key joints, a new nitrogen purge system, and improvements to the propellant drain system." For flight nine, the Super Heavy booster won't return to the launch site, but will instead splash down in the ocean. The Starship upper stage will attempt to deploy eight Starlink dummy satellites, and SpaceX is otherwise looking to this flight to test "several experiments focused on enabling Starship's upper stage to return to the launch site."
