SpaceX Starship rocket 'lost' shortly after booster landing

SpaceX's Starship rocket was lost just minutes after its booster successfully landed, raising concerns for the mission's outcome. Despite the booster’s safe return to the ground, the rocket's upper stage failed to maintain stability, leading to its loss. The incident has sparked discussions about the challenges SpaceX faces in perfecting Starship’s design and ensuring successful spaceflight operations.

The Starship's booster was successfully captured as planned by two massive mechanical arms at the launchpad, but the rocket itself faced disaster. The 400-foot rocket, the largest and most powerful in the world, lifted off from Boca Chica, Texas, at around 4:40 p.m. local time (10:40 p.m. in the UK) on Thursday.

Shortly after launch, the booster made a successful return to the ground and, after briefly hovering over the launchpad, was caught between two large mechanical arms. This marked the second time SpaceX has successfully completed this operation.

As the crowd cheered for the booster's successful landing, SpaceX reported that contact with the Starship was lost as its engines shut down. A host on SpaceX's livestream confirmed, "At this point in time, we can confirm we did lose the ship."

"It looks like we lost contact just under eight and a half minutes into the flight," the host added. SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot expressed disappointment, saying, "It was great to see a booster come down, but we are obviously bummed out about the ship," and noted that it would take time to analyze the data and identify what went wrong.

The final data received from Starship indicated it had reached an altitude of 90 miles and a speed of 13,245 mph. This was the seventh test flight for the upgraded Starship, marking progress in Elon Musk's goal to develop the first fully reusable spacecraft to send humans to Mars.

"Every Starship launch is one more step closer towards Mars," Musk tweeted before liftoff. The prototype had undergone significant modifications since its sixth test flight in November. The flight was intended to travel over the Gulf of Mexico and nearly complete a global loop, practicing the release of dummy satellites.

Ahead of the flight, SpaceX also upgraded the booster 'catch' tower, which had been damaged in a previous test flight in November. This wasn’t the first time a Starship test flight ended in failure. In November 2023, the company's second attempt to launch its mega rocket ended abruptly when it exploded.

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Source: newssky‍