A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on the Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3). This picture is for illustration functions and doesn’t present the Starship rocket that exploded.
SpaceX Starship explosion: Catastrophe for Musk’s Mars programme?
Credit score: Shutterstock, Capturing Photographs
SpaceX’s colossal Starship rocket has as soon as once more met a fiery finish, tumbling out of the sky simply minutes after launch and sprinkling wreckage removed from its Texan pad.
Thursday, March 6’s ill-fated take a look at flight got here practically two months after an identical incident despatched flaming fragments cascading over the Turks and Caicos. This time, particles rained down on Florida after the large craft spiralled uncontrolled and broke aside.
A towering launch, a turbulent tumble
The 403-foot (123-metre) Starship blasted off from SpaceX’s Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, on Thursday, 6 March 2025. Initially, it appeared on track for achievement: the first-stage booster flew again and was snatched mid-air on the pad by SpaceX’s famed big robotic arms – a exceptional feat of engineering. Nevertheless, the spacecraft above was not so fortunate. Because it barrelled eastwards, engines started to close down, inflicting the automobile to enter an out-of-control spin. Floor controllers misplaced contact simply moments later.
Starship soared to nearly 90 miles (150 kilometres) above Earth – shy of the official boundary of area – earlier than catastrophe struck. Images and movies of flaming particles quickly appeared on social media, purportedly taken from the Florida coast close to Cape Canaveral, suggesting that Starship had damaged aside lengthy earlier than its deliberate ocean splashdown half a world away.
SpaceX swiftly confirmed one other ‘fast unscheduled disassembly,’ a tongue-in-cheek time period the corporate makes use of to explain an unplanned explosion.
No satellites deployed, no accidents reported
After the craft’s ill-timed breakup, not one of the 4 mock satellites – designed as stand-ins for future actual payloads – reached orbit. The take a look at flight was supposed to final about an hour, culminating with a managed re-entry over the Indian Ocean. As an alternative, Starship’s grand odyssey ended simply minutes after launch. Luckily, as with the previous incident, there have been no studies of accidents or critical injury on the bottom.
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