San Antonio, US, Jan 16 (EFE). – The second stage of Starship, the world’s largest and most powerful rocket, was lost on Thursday after a smooth launch from SpaceX’s Boca Chica base in southern Texas.
Before confirming the news, SpaceX, owned by tech mogul Elon Musk, said during a live broadcast that it had lost contact with the rocket, that was supposed to splash down in the Indian Ocean.
The launch itself was uneventful, and even the first stage, the Super Heavy, managed to return to the base for a second spectacular grapple.
“Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly during its ascent burn. Teams will continue to review data from today’s flight test to better understand root cause,” SpaceX said on X, also owned by Musk.
“With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve Starship’s,” the company added.
The rocket was upgraded for the seventh test flight, and the lost part was carrying cargo into space for the first time, in this case, a dozen replicas of Starlink internet satellites.
The lost spacecraft was to fly on a suborbital trajectory for about an hour before splashing down in the Indian Ocean, as in the previous tests.
In these test flights, the aim is not to reach orbit, but to orbit the planet and descend tail-first into the Indian Ocean under rocket propulsion.
The Super Heavy rocket lifted off as planned at 4:37 pm local time on Thursday after several delays due to unfavorable weather conditions.
SpaceX intended this new Starship test to launch a spacecraft with significant upgrades and attempt the first test deployment of payloads, the Starlink.
It also wanted to fly multiple re-entry experiments aimed at capturing and reusing the spacecraft and launching and returning the Super Heavy booster to the Texas base, which it did.
As in recent test flights, the first stage boosted the upper stage out of the dense lower atmosphere before returning in a controlled manner. EFE
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