Oh no! Not again, Elon
Blow to Musk’s Mars dream as third test rocket crashes
ELON Musk’s dream of sending humans to Mars ran into trouble again yesterday after his SpaceX Starship was destroyed on its return to Earth.
The first two tests of Starship and its Super Heavy boosters ended in fiery failures. And yesterday’s attempt saw it come crashing down as it headed towards the Indian Ocean.
Last April, the rocket flew for four minutes before the booster engine failed to detach, causing the craft to spin uncontrollably. In the second test in November, the booster detached from the craft – then exploded moments later.
SpaceX later confirming it had selfdestructed after travelling 95 miles high during the eight-minute flight.
The company described its first explosion as a ‘ rapid unscheduled disassembly’. And yesterday, a spokesman tried to stay on message, saying: ‘If you’re not failing, you’re not learning.’ Yester
‘Ambitious test flight’
day, the unmanned spacecraft – the largest in the world – blasted off from Texas before reaching orbit.
But despite flying further than either of the previous two test flights, Starship lost contact with ground control ahead of splashing down in the ocean. Billionaire Musk, 52, posted on X yesterday: ‘SpaceX has come a long way. Starship will make life multiplanetary. Starship will take humanity to Mars.’
Yesterday marked the 22nd anniversary of SpaceX, the company Musk founded to enable the exploration of other planets.
Starship’s 33 Raptor engines emitted a blinding flash as it rose gracefully into the sky from SpaceX’s Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, at 1.25pm time.
Its 232 ft Super Heavy booster, which carries 4,500 tons of propellant and is designed to be reusable, detached successfully before piloting itself back towards Earth.
It attempted to ‘soft land’ in the ocean, but not all its engines fired correctly and the company confirmed it had made a ‘rapid unscheduled disassembly’ above the Gulf of Mexico.
Starship – which at 165ft is taller than the Statue of Liberty – continued its short mission in orbit, firing its own six engines during separation in a process called ‘hot staging’.
A door at the top of the craft, called the Pez, was also tested successfully. It will be used to deploy Starlink satellites into space.
Live- feed cameras showed temperatures of 1,400C (2,550F) form around the edges of the craft as it re- entered Earth at more than five times the speed of sound. The rocket was lost during its final approach when all its signals blanked out at the same time, suggesting a catastrophic systems failure.
Nonetheless, the flight was hailed as a success by SpaceX.
A spokesman said: ‘ This iterative design process helps us learn the perils of space travel and improve every time.’ Chad Anderson, a managing partner of SpaceX investor Space Capital, said: ‘Starship achieved nearly all of its goals on what was an extremely ambitious test flight. I think SpaceX has demonstrated that Starship is now ready to begin its payload delivery missions, which is an incredible breakthrough for the company – as well as for the entire space economy.’