New Delhi– SpaceX’s Starship experienced another explosive setback during its ninth test flight on Wednesday, with founder Elon Musk attributing the failure to a fuel leak. This marks the third consecutive Starship test to end in failure.
Launched at 7:36 p.m. EDT (5:06 a.m. IST) from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Texas, the massive rocket initially performed well, successfully reaching orbit and flying farther than in its previous two attempts. However, the mission ran into trouble when the payload bay door failed to open, preventing the release of simulated Starlink satellites.
Roughly 30 minutes into the flight, SpaceX confirmed a fuel leak, which ultimately led to a catastrophic failure. The Super Heavy booster exploded shortly before its expected splashdown, and the upper-stage vehicle began spinning uncontrollably during re-entry.
“Leaks caused loss of main tank pressure during the coast and re-entry phase,” Musk posted on X.
SpaceX said contact with the booster was lost shortly after the landing burn began. “It experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly approximately six minutes after launch,” the company said, ending the first reflight of a Super Heavy booster.
Despite the failure, Musk called the mission a step forward. “Starship made it to the scheduled engine cutoff, so big improvement over the last flight,” he noted. “Also, no significant loss of heat shield tiles during ascent. A lot of good data to review.”
Standing 403 feet tall, Starship is the world’s largest and most powerful rocket system. It is expected to play a critical role in NASA’s Artemis 3 mission, which aims to return astronauts to the Moon by 2026.
SpaceX said it will continue analyzing data from the test and prepare for the next flight. (Source: IANS)
