Elon Musk's SpaceX Loses Upgraded Starship; Rocket Booster Successfully Comes Back To Launchpad

ꦦThe seventh test flight for the world's biggest and most powerful rocket ended up in disappointment as tech billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX lost its Starship rocket on Thursday. The upgraded version of the SpaceX spacecraft was destroyed following a thrilling booster catch back at the launchpad.

꧑As per media reports, the spacecraft was carrying 10 dummy satellites to practice how to release them, and the Starship was programmed to soar across the Gulf of Mexico from Texas on a near loop around the world.

Super Heavy Booster returned to launchpad successfully

𝓰The initial stage of the test flight showed a major sign of success as, for the second time, the Super Heavy booster of the Starship launched from SpaceX's Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, demonstrated a successful mid-air landing.

❀The successful return took place by using the "chopsticks" arms of the giant launch tower Mechazilla. The booster is a 232-foot-tall rocket equipped with 33 Raptor engines.

What went wrong?

🎃However, the excitement of the booster catch quickly turned into disappointment as the test's successful trajectory took a u-turn approximately 8.5 minutes into the flight after communication with the Starship spacecraft was lost.

𒁃Shortly after, the spacecraft was seen disintegrating into multiple fragments during its atmospheric re-entry.

♏Several videos on X showed the shower of scattering debris over the Caribbean. SpaceX referred to the incident as a "rapid unscheduled disassembly," a term often used by the company to describe unplanned explosions.

🌳While acknowledging the failure, SpaceX primarily focused on the learnings it got from the test flight. "Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly during its ascent burn. Teams will continue to review data from today's flight test to better understand the root cause. With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve Starship’s reliability", the X post read.

“It was great to see a booster come down, but we are obviously bummed out about the ship,” said SpaceX spokesman Dan Huot, as per a report by India Today.

๊On Friday, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin launched the newest supersized rocket, New Glenn. The rocket reached orbit on its first flight, successfully placing an experimental satellite thousands of miles above Earth.

🌳But the first-stage booster was destroyed, missing its targeted landing on a floating platform in the Atlantic.