Latest news with #testflight
Gizmodo
11 hours ago
- Science
- Gizmodo
SpaceX Starship Explodes in Spectacular Fireball at Texas Test Facility
Are we on Mars yet? The upper stage prototype, designated Ship 36, exploded shortly before midnight local time on June 18 during routine preparations for an upcoming test flight. SpaceX is in the midst of preparing for Starship's next fully integrated test, known as Flight 10. The last several tests haven't gone well, but this prototype never even left the ground. The explosion—as shown in spectacular footage from at SpaceX's Massey facility, a test site located several miles from the launch mount at Starbase, Texas. The 171-foot-tall (51-meter) Starship upper stage 'experienced a major anomaly while on a test stand at Starbase,' SpaceX said in a statement on X. 'A safety clear area around the site was maintained throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and accounted for.' The Starbase team is coordinating with local authorities to manage the aftermath of the incident, SpaceX said, adding that, while the company reported no threat to nearby communities, it urged the public to steer clear of the area as safety measures are carried out. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk chimed in a few hours after the incident on X, brushing the incident off as 'Just a scratch.' He elaborated further this morning, saying the early data 'suggests a nitrogen COPV [composite overwrapped pressure vessel] in the payload bay failed below its proof pressure,' and that if this proves to be the case, it's the 'first time ever for this design.' A COPV is a lightweight tank made of composite fibers wrapped around a thin liner to store high-pressure fluids, according to NASA. No further details are known, but as SpaceNews points out, Starship was being prepared for a static fire test, and the explosion happened before the rocket had a chance to fire its Raptor engines. A June 18 advisory from the Federal Aviation Administration pointed to June 29 as a potential date for Flight 10, but that seems unlikely now. SpaceX is in a bit of a slump right now, with this incident adding to the pile of recent setbacks. Flight 7 in January 2024 experienced a propellant leak and fire triggered by unexpected vibrations in the propulsion system. In March, Flight 8 was cut short by a hardware failure in one of the Raptor engines, while Flight 9 in May successfully reached space, but a leak led to loss of control and the vehicle broke apart during reentry. SpaceX's Starship megarocket is built to carry people and cargo to the Moon, Mars, and other destinations around the solar system. It's a key part of NASA's Artemis program, which aims to land astronauts on the Moon by 2027, and is key to Elon Musk's goal of colonizing Mars.
The Independent
19 hours ago
- Science
- The Independent
Watch: Elon Musk's SpaceX Starship rocket engulfed by flames in explosion
A SpaceX Starship rocket exploded during a routine test on Wednesday (18 June) at Starbase, the company's launch site in Texas. Footage shows the 36 rocket, which was undergoing a static fire test, suddenly blowing up, with the screen going white before fading to reveal an enormous fireball. In a statement, Elon Musk 's SpaceX said the rocket suffered 'a major anomaly' whilst preparing for the tenth flight test. It said that 'all personnel are safe and accounted for', before stating that there are no hazards to nearby communities. The company advised people not to approach the site.
The Independent
20 hours ago
- Science
- The Independent
SpaceX Starship rocket explodes in dramatic fireball after ‘major anomaly'
A SpaceX rocket being tested in Texas exploded on Wednesday night, sending a dramatic fireball high into the sky. The company said the Starship"experienced a major anomaly" while on the test stand preparing for the tenth flight test at Starbase, SpaceX's launch site at the southern tip of Texas. Starship is the most powerful rocket ever made, and SpaceX hopes that it will eventually carry humans to the Moon and Mars. But first it must conduct a series of uncrewed tests – the latest of which was expected to happen as soon as this month. In advance of that test, SpaceX has conducted a series of tests of the Starship spacecraft as well as the booster engines that are due to carry it to space. The latest was a static fire test, in which the engines are turned on but the spacecraft stays attached to the ground, but it exploded as preparations were being made. "A safety clear area around the site was maintained throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and accounted for," SpaceX said in a statement on the social platform X. 'Our Starbase team is actively working to safe the test site and the immediate surrounding area in conjunction with local officials. There are no hazards to residents in surrounding communities, and we ask that individuals do not attempt to approach the area while safing operations continue.' It is unclear how much damage the explosion has done to the testing facilities and SpaceX's facilities near Starbase, its Texas town. More follows
The National
28-05-2025
- General
- The National
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
Bloomberg
28-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
SpaceX Starship Fails in Fiery Test Setback
00:00 Welcome back to watching the China Show. An update here on Space X and the colossal starship here has suffered this ... It tumbled out of control in space, exploded during this test flight. It's a - let's call it a third straight major setback here for Elon Musk's company. Let's bring in Paul Allen, who's been covering the story for us here. Paul, what exactly happened? And we did also hear from Elon Musk just in the last hour in terms of how he's framed this, the setback in the broader scheme of things. Yeah, let's talk about it in two parts, David, because the rocket is in two parts. We'll start with the booster. This was quite interesting, refurbished. The booster had been flown before on Flight seven. The intention was not to catch up with the chopstick arms this time, but to test a number of different landing profiles and then have it splashed down in the Gulf. That didn't happen. That exploded on the ignition for a final landing burn. The second part, the top section of the ship, the starship, also did not go to plan. There was no deployments of the dummy StarLink satellites. There was no relighting of the engines in space. And then the ship lost attitude control. We did hear from Elon Musk, as you say. He said, look, there were leaks that caused a loss of main tank pressure at the re-entry phase and that ship was also lost. So not a great day for SpaceX, test Flight nine, not going to plan, Paul. I mean, this all comes on the backdrop of him. You know, Musk returning back to his companies after a stint in the White House. What's next then? What can SpaceX do to kind of re renew their new focus or what's going to be the next plan? We'll know what's next is they just keep on going and there's always a temptation to frame these sorts of, well, setbacks as major disasters. They're not really this is just how space X rolls. It iterates loudly, publicly. It's not afraid to let things blow up. And that's kind of what we saw today. We have to remember that at the starbase there in Boca Chica, there was a whole production line just turning out ship after ship, booster after booster. And every time something like this happens, they take learnings from it, they redevelop, I reiterate, they go back to the launch pad and they try again. Elon Musk still got some very aggressive timelines around this. He hopes to have robots on Mars next year, which is the next launch window for Mars. During this launch, however, we were speaking with a former astronaut, Colonel William McArthur. He's a little bit skeptical of these timelines. He says getting to Mars still potentially decades away. He says SpaceX might even need to design a new propulsion system that doesn't yet exist. But the objective of getting back to the moon seems to be a little bit more realistic. And this is certainly not the end for space X They'll be back on the launch pad for Flight ten before we know it.
