SpaceX’s Starship test flight faced a setback as contact was lost with the spacecraft shortly after launch
The company confirmed that the spacecraft was destroyed. It was supposed to fly over the Gulf of Mexico and loop around the world, just like previous tests. They had even loaded it with 10 dummy satellites to practice releasing them. This was the first flight of the upgraded version of the spacecraft.
Before losing contact, SpaceX used these giant mechanical arms to catch the booster just minutes after it took off from Texas. The booster hovered above the launch pad before being grabbed by these arms, which they call chopsticks.
The rocket, towering at 400 feet, blasted off in the late afternoon from Boca Chica, right near the Mexican border. The timing was perfect for a daylight entry halfway around the globe.
The shiny spacecraft, which Musk envisions for moon and Mars missions, was aimed at a controlled but destructive landing in the Indian Ocean after about an hour of flight.
SpaceX had made some upgrades to the catch tower after a previous launch damaged the robotic arms, so they were eager to try again. This time, they were ready to catch the booster instead of letting it crash into the Gulf.
The test satellites were similar in size to SpaceX’s Starlink satellites, and they were also meant to drop into the Indian Ocean at the end of the mission. Unfortunately, contact was lost about 8 and a half minutes into the flight.
Musk has plans to launch actual Starlink satellites on Starships before moving on to other missions, including crewed flights. This was the seventh test flight for the world’s biggest rocket, and NASA has even reserved a couple of Starships to land astronauts on the moon later this decade. Musk’s ultimate goal? Mars.
He mentioned on X that “Every Starship launch is one more step closer towards Mars.”
Oh, and just a few hours earlier, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launched its new supersized rocket, New Glenn, which successfully reached orbit on its first flight. But, like SpaceX, they also had a mishap with their first-stage booster, which missed its landing on a floating platform in the Atlantic.
