SpaceX Starship Faces Third Consecutive Launch Failure
Tuesday’s flight had high stakes because previous launches in January and March exploded over the Gulf of Mexico right after takeoff causing debris to fall from the sky on top of disrupting air travel.
SpaceX Starship Faces Third Consecutive Launch Failure
The latest Starship test flight failure occurred when their Starship rocket leaked then veered out of control in space before SpaceX Starship explosion during its Tuesday test flight marking the third consecutive significant mishap for Elon Musk’s company.
At approximately 6:36 p.m. local time the Starship upper stage and Super Heavy booster launch system lifted off from SpaceX’s South Texas launchpad. The launch of Starship on its mission drew approximately 1.1 million viewers on X.
The recycled Super Heavy booster separated from the Starship upper portion to activate its engines during the flight's initial minutes. SpaceX commentators reported that the vehicle suffered a problem as it maneuvered to Earth and exploded before reaching the Gulf of Mexico for its anticipated hard splashdown.
SpaceX then appeared to fall short of another key milestone planned for the mission: SpaceX planned to launch multiple dummy satellites with the Elon Musk rocket crash. Starship reached space but launch commentators reported that the Starship bay door failed to open properly which led to the premature termination of the test. The satellite simulators function to replicate the advanced Starlink internet satellites which the operational rocket will transport.
The livestream began to experience interruptions when Starship headed toward Earth's atmosphere during its return trip 35 minutes into the mission. SpaceX commentator Dan Huot informed viewers that Starship had encountered a Starship rapid unscheduled disassembly which caused it to spin uncontrollably and prevented a controlled atmospheric reentry. The spacecraft reached its end-point according to SpaceX commentator Jessie Anderson.
According to Huot the spacecraft has experienced SpaceX Starship leak within its fuel tank systems. The attitude control failure resulted from the problems with the ship's fuel tank systems.
SpaceX emphasized its commitment to learning from each SpaceX May 28 test flight. According to Anderson the team will learn and keep iterating continuously.
