SpaceX’s latest Starship Test Flight ends with an explosion seen in Florida

Almost two months after the explosion sent rainy flame fragments to Turks and Caicos, SpaceX launched another mammoth spacecraft rocket on Thursday, but lost minutes of test flights as the spacecraft rolled down and broke.

This time, the remains from the latest explosion were seen flowing from the sky in Florida. It was not immediately known whether the spacecraft’s self-destructing system began to blow it up.

The 403-foot rocket exploded from Texas. SpaceX caught the first stage booster of the pad with a massive mechanical arm, but the engines of the upper spacecraft began to shut down as they striped east due to what appears to be a controlled entry in the Indian Ocean half-world. The spacecraft became an uncontrollable spin, resulting in contact being lost.

The spacecraft reached approximately 90 miles (150 km) at altitude before troubles occurred and deployed the four mock satellites. It was not immediately clear where it had descended, but images of the flame fragments were taken from Florida, including near Cape Canaveral, and posted online.

The space-scheming flight was supposed to last for an hour.

“Unfortunately, this happened last time, so there’s some practice with this,” SpaceX flight commentator Dan Huot said from the release site.

SpaceX later confirmed that the spacecraft had experienced a “rapid unplanned demolition” while launching the rising engine. “Our team immediately began coordination with safety personnel and implemented pre-planned emergency response,” the company said in a statement posted online.

The Starship was not that high or not that high until last time.

NASA booked the Starship to land astronauts on the moon 10 years later. SpaceX’s Elon Musk aims for Starship and Mars, the world’s largest and most powerful rocket.

As with last time, Starship had a mock satellite to release a mock satellite after the craft reached space on this eighth test flight as a practice for future missions. They resemble SpaceX’s Starlink Internet satellites, now carrying thousands of Earths in orbit, and were intended to retreat after a short taste of space.

The spacecraft’s flaps, computers and fuel systems have been redesigned for the next big step. It’s about returning the spaceship to the launch site, just like a booster.

In the final demonstration, SpaceX captured a booster on the launch pad, but the spacecraft exploded in the Atlantic Ocean a few minutes later. No injuries or major damages have been reported.

Continuing investigations show that the fuel leak caused a series of fires closing the spacecraft’s engines. The onboard self-destruction system kicked in as planned.

SpaceX said it had made some improvements to the spacecraft after the accident, and the Federal Aviation Administration recently put the Starship down again for release.

The spacecraft soars from the southernmost tip of Texas near the Mexican border. SpaceX is bringing astronauts and satellites into orbit and building another spacecraft complex in Cape Canaveral, home to the company’s small Falcon rockets.

Marcia Dunn AP Aerospace Writer

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