The ninth test flight of a rocket carrying a prototype of the Starship spacecraft, launched by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, ended in failure on Tuesday.
The company said that there was a rapid unplanned destruction of the spacecraft.
SpaceX specialists are analysing launch data and continuing preparations for a new launch. According to the broadcast, the spacecraft entered orbit but shortly afterwards its flight control system failed. After one orbit around the earth, it lost control and began to enter the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean. Contact with Starship was lost 10 minutes after launch. In addition, during the flight, the hatch for releasing eight Starlink mini-satellite simulators did not open for technical reasons.
The stages separated normally, after which the booster hurtled towards earth and the Starship rocket continued its flight. This time, SpaceX did not plan to catch Super Heavy, but it would not have been possible anyway — it exploded in the air.
The rocket was launched at 19:36 from the Starbase spaceport in the US state of Texas. The two previous launches, in March and January, ended in the loss of the spacecraft, partly due to equipment failure in one of the engines. This time, the company planned to conduct several experiments to improve the performance of Starship and launch eight Starlink communication system satellite simulators into orbit.
