Starship’s seventh test flight ended in an explosion over the Atlantic Ocean when the upper stage of the aircraft “experienced rapid unplanned disintegration during the ascent burn.” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted a video of the event showing streaks of debris lighting up the sky. During the company’s webcast, Dan Huot of SpaceX’s communications team said that by the end of the ascent burn, “we witnessed the engines falling off on telemetry” and that contact with the ship was eventually lost ( (what the company calls the upper stage of the ship). SpaceX said in a tweet that it will continue to review experimental data to determine the root cause of the explosion.
Following the incident, the Federal Aviation Administration issued an advisory to pilots warning them of falling debris in certain areas. Prior to the test, SpaceX said the test was aimed at “launching a new generation ship with significant upgrades,” and will utilize 10 Starlink simulators to conduct Starship’s first payload deployment test. He said it was.
Despite Starship’s upper stage burning out, the test was still partially successful. The ship’s Raptor engine ignited during the ascent burn, and contact with the ground team was lost approximately eight minutes into the flight. SpaceX also successfully captured the vehicle’s first stage with the Starbase launch tower’s mechanical arm and recovered the Super Heavy booster.
