18 November 2023 , 13:19
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SpaceX has carried out a test launch of Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built.
This was the space exploration giant's second attempt to launch Starship, which is the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, after another failed attempt in April 2023.
The Starship was launched on time just a few minutes after the 20-minute window for the launch opened at 7am local time in Texas. Then, during the flight, the Starship successfully separated from the Super Heavy booster and continued its flight as scheduled.
However, the Super Heavy booster unexpectedly blew up into an explosion and disassembled into the air after the separation. Moments later, the SpaceX team said on its livestream that it had lost contact with Starship. After a while, the company said that it was forced to trigger Starship's self-destruct feature.
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The booster had sent the rocketship toward space, but communication was lost eight minutes after liftoff from South Texas and SpaceX declared that the vehicle had failed.
The trouble cropped up as the ship’s engines were almost done firing to put it on an around-the-world path. Minutes earlier, the booster exploded, but not until its job was done, putting the ship on a course toward space.
The company then confirmed on its livestream that it was forced to trigger Starship's "flight termination system" — which is essentially a self-destruct feature that SpaceX engaged to prevent the Starship from travelling off course.
Starship separated from the Super Heavy booster and continued its flightSpaceX spent the past several months making improvements to both the rocket and launch pad, which is located at the southern tip of Texas near the Mexico border. The Federal Aviation Administration issued its license Wednesday, noting that SpaceX has met safety, environmental and other requirements to launch again.
SpaceX’s Elon Musk intends to use a fleet of Starship rockets to get people to the moon and Mars. No one was injured in the first attempt, but the pad was heavily damaged as the rocket's 33 main engines ignited at liftoff.
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SpaceX crews watching the Starship launchThe U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service later reported that concrete chunks, steel sheets and other objects were hurled thousands of feet (hundreds of meters) from the pad. It also said a plume of pulverized concrete sent material several miles (up to 10 kilometres) away.
Wildlife and environmental groups sued the FAA over what they considered to be the FAA’s failure to fully consider the environmental impacts of the Starship program near Boca Chica Beach.
During the first test launch in April, the craft exploded mere minutes into its flight, sending debris raining down into the Gulf of Mexico and prompting outrage from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which later sued the FAA over environmental concerns.
Shortly after separation between the booster and Starship, SpaceX said it lost contact with the craftThe launchpad was damaged during takeoff as well, which occurred in southern Texas in Boca Chica for that first failed flight. The second test was given a more extensive environmental impact review, and the FAA deemed it safe. It will also begin in Boca Chica.
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Elon Musk scheduled the test for Friday morning, but he took to Twitter, now known as X, a platform he owns, to say that the test had been delayed by a day because the company needed to "replace a grid fin actuator."
The tests are a part of SpaceX's $3 billion (£2.4 billion) deal with NASA to land astronauts on the moon by using the spacecraft by 2025.