SpaceX spacecraft explodes for third time in a row, but Musk promises more launches
SpaceX's Starship exploded during a test flight on Tuesday, marking the third consecutive failure for Elon Musk's company.
SpaceX's Starship exploded during a test flight on Tuesday, marking the third consecutive failure for Elon Musk's company.
SpaceX is developing the Starship system to transport people and equipment around Earth and to the Moon. Musk also wants SpaceX to use Starship to colonize Mars.
The unmanned mission on May 27 was SpaceX's ninth test flight, during which the first-stage booster exploded and the Starship second-stage spacecraft suffered a significant fuel leak, then spun out of control and exploded during atmospheric reentry, CNBC reports .
Musk, who is the CEO of SpaceX, wrote on X: "Starship achieved the planned engine shutdown of the ship, so this is a big improvement over the previous flight! There was also no significant loss of heat shield tiles during ascent."
He added that “the leaks caused a loss of pressure in the main tank during the launch and reentry phases” of the rocket. Musk promised that SpaceX would increase the frequency of Starship launches with future flights to about once every three to four weeks.
SpaceX was previously limited to five Starship launches per year from its spaceport in Texas, but earlier this month received key approval from the FAA to increase the frequency of launches.
“With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s test will help us improve Starship’s reliability as SpaceX strives to make life multi-planetary,” the company wrote in a post on X.
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