The second stage of the Starship spacecraft, the largest and most powerful rocket in the world, was lost this Thursday after a smooth takeoff from the SpaceX base in Boca Chica, in southern Texas (USA), on the border with Mexico. . Elon Musk’s company ship exploded over the Caribbean when it was leaving for space. Before confirming the news, the technology magnate’s company noted during the live broadcast that it had lost contact with the rocket, which was due to land in the Indian Ocean.
“The Starship spacecraft suffered a rapid and unforeseen disassembly during its ascent. “Teams will continue to review data from today’s flight test to better understand the root cause,” SpaceX said on the X social network. “Success depends on what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve the reliability of the Starship spacecraft,” the message also says.
The remains of the ship passed through the north of the Dominican Republic, according to United States news websites and according to images posted on social networks. “The debris (from Starship) was seen breaking up over the Dominican Republic,” wrote the High Priority News X account.
Social media users in the Dominican Republic have spread images of whitish, green and orange flashes moving at high speed over the waters of the Atlantic Ocean near the city of Montecristi (northwest).
A Civil Defense director who asked not to reveal his name stated that they have no reports of human or property damage, but confirmed what happened. The images were also captured from Santiago (north) and Valverde (northwest).
The spaceship debris waterfall caused several planes to divert in the areaand the US aviation agency could ask SpaceX to investigate the accident. Meanwhile, Elon Musk tweeted: “Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed.”
The Starship rocket had been improved for this seventh test flight and the part that was lost carried cargo into space for the first time, in this case a dozen replicas of Starlink internet satellites.
The lost ship was to fly in a suborbital trajectory for approximately an hour, after which it planned to land in the Indian Ocean, as in the latest tests.
In these initial test flights, the idea is not to reach orbit but to circle the planet and descend tail-first and rocket-propelled into the Indian Ocean.
The rocket had taken off at 16:37 local time (22:37 GMT) powered by the Super Heavy as planned after several delays due to unfavorable weather conditions.
SpaceX proposed in this new Starship test to launch a ship with significant improvements, and attempt the first payload deployment test, the Starlink.
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