WASHINGTON — SpaceX’s Starship vehicle suffered its second consecutive test flight failure March 6, tumbling in space before breakup and reentering over the Caribbean.
The Starship/Super Heavy vehicle lifted off on the Flight 8 test flight at 6:30 p.m. Eastern from the company’s Starbase test site in South Texas. The countdown appeared to go smoothly other than a hold at the T-40 second mark that lasted only a few seconds.
The vehicle’s initial phases of flight went as planned. That included the ascent of the vehicle through stage separation and the return of the Super Heavy booster, which was caught back at the launch tower for the third time in four missions dating back to October 2024.
However, just after eight minutes into the flight, four of the six Raptor engines in the Starship upper stage shut down in quick succession. The vehicle immediately began to tumble but continued to relay video, showing the Earth spinning in and out of view.
Several minutes later, observers in parts of the Caribbean, from the Dominican Republic to the Bahamas, and as far north as Florida’s Space Coast, reported seeing the vehicle explode and debris falling. It was uncertain how much debris would reach the ground and where.
That breakup was similar to the Flight 7 mission Jan. 16, when contact with Starship was lost about eight and a half minutes after liftoff. Debris fell in the Caribbean, with some found in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The company announced Feb. 24 that it concluded the vehicle suffered a “harmonic response several times stronger in flight than had been seen during testing” that stressed propellant lines. That caused leaks that created fires in the aft “attic” section of the vehicle, causing all but one of the six engines there to perform controlled shutdowns.
SpaceX said it made changes to hardware in the vehicle and operations to prevent similar damage from happening again. It also added vents and a gaseous nitrogen purge system to reduce…
Read the full article here