SpaceX’s Starship rocket suffered another failure during its eighth test flight, as it lost contact with the spacecraft minutes after launch.
The massive 403-foot rocket blasted off from Texas, heading east towards what was intended to be a controlled entry over the Indian Ocean. However, the spacecraft began to spin out of control, and contact was lost, preventing it from releasing mock satellites as planned.
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The flight, which was meant to last an hour, was the second such failure after a similar incident nearly two months ago when SpaceX’s previous test flight led to debris falling on the Turks and Caicos.
Despite the setback, SpaceX was able to recover the first-stage booster successfully, using mechanical arms at the launch pad, but the spacecraft’s engines shut down mid-flight.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued ground stops for airports in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, and Palm Beach, causing delays in departing flights. Passengers faced an average delay of 45 minutes.
This Starship flight carried four mock satellites, similar to SpaceX’s Starlink satellites, as part of a demonstration for future missions.
The spacecraft, which had reached an altitude of nearly 90 miles, failed to release the satellites and fell back to Earth, with the exact location of its descent still unclear.
Despite the failure, SpaceX remains committed to further tests, with the goal of landing astronauts on the moon later this decade.
The company continues to make improvements to Starship’s design, including its flaps, fuel system, and computers, following the previous failure.
The investigation into the prior failure revealed that a leaking fuel system caused a fire that shut down the engines. SpaceX has made several changes to prevent a recurrence and recently received FAA approval for subsequent launches.
