Starship spacecraft exploded causing aviation traffic disruption

SpaceX launched the Starship super rocket on the 8th test flight, bringing 123 m high vehicles from Starbase base in South Texas at 6:30 pm 6/3 (5:30 am on March 7, Hanoi).

After about 2.5 minutes of fire, the Super Heavy push missile separated from the upper floor of Starship as planned. 7 minutes after leaving the launch pad, the huge rocket on the first floor of Starship, Super Heavy, returned to Starbase and was caught by the chopsticks in the launch tower. This is the third time SpaceX has successfully implemented this missile recovery technique, according to Space.

But less than 10 minutes after the flight, the Starship continued towards the space, starting a problem. Some of the vehicles were turned off and the ship began to wobble before SpaceX lost contact. It exploded later, causing aviation traffic disruption. This is the second consecutive failure of this vehicle this year.

“Once you lose too many central engines, you will lose control of posture,” said Dan Huot, the media director of SpaceX, said on the live broadcast.

The loss of signals occurred almost at the same time in this mission as with the 7th test flight in January. At that time, Starship exploded on the islands with people in Turks and CaiCos, causing these islands to fill fragments. The incident in the seventh test also slowed down and redirected the aircraft around the missile debris.

The exact location of the ship exploded on the mission on March 6 has not been confirmed. But the explosion can be seen from the areas of Florida and in the Caribbean, according to CNN.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) paused flights to Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and Orlando on the evening of March 6 due to “falling space fragments”. FAA also temporarily keeps flights departing from Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood and Miami International Airport. The flights leaving these airports are still delayed on average 30 and 45 minutes, as of March 6.

“We have had many measures, such as the area of ​​fragment response, where we worked closely with the air saving control,” Huot said on the live broadcast. “We have a lot of measures (before) to launch missiles to ensure the safety of the public. Those measures have been operating last time and they are working right now.”

Starship is a launching system that is gradually proving the ambition to bring people to Mars for the first time of the CEO of SpaceX Elon Musk. This is the highest rocket (120 m) and the strongest ever made, capable of producing nearly 8,000 tons of thrust when launched.

The launching system includes Super Heavy push layer and Starship spacecraft above. The push missile is located on the first floor and the spacecraft carrying people and goods is located on the second floor. The missile’s mission is to bring the Starship to an orbit, then the Starship will fly on its engine while the missile returns to the Earth. Both parts can be reused.