US grounds SpaceX Starship after explosion in test flight

The US has grounded SpaceX’s giant Starship rocket while it investigates why it exploded during its latest test flight.

The rocket’s upper stage broke apart dramatically after launch from Texas on Thursday and scattered over the Caribbean, forcing airline flights to divert to avoid the debris.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it is working with SpaceX and other officials to confirm reports of damage to public property on the Turks and Caicos Islands. There were no reports of injuries.

Elon Musk’s company has been asked to investigate the “accident” by the aviation regulator, which will review the findings before deciding whether Starship can return to flight.

The FAA confirmed it had activated a “debris response area” to briefly slow aircraft out of the area. where the debris was fallingOr prevent planes from leaving their departure point.

It said several aircraft were asked to divert due to low fuel levels while being kept outside the affected area.

Starship is the largest, most powerful rocket ever built, and is key to Musk’s ambitions to colonize Mars.

Thursday’s unmanned launch was Starship’s seventh test mission, and the first involving a longer, upgraded version of the rocket.

The Starship upper stage, two meters (6.56 ft) longer than previous versions, was a “new generation ship with significant upgrades”, SpaceX said ahead of the test.

It was scheduled for a controlled launch into the Indian Ocean about an hour after launch from Boca Chica, Texas.

The Starship system lifted off at 17:38 EST (22:38 GMT) and the upper stage separated from its Super Heavy booster about four minutes after liftoff as planned.

But then SpaceX communications manager Dan Huot reported on a live stream that mission teams had lost contact with the ship.

The Super Heavy booster managed to return to its launchpad about seven minutes after liftoff as planned, prompting applause from ground control teams.

SpaceX later confirmed that there had been a “rapid undetermined disintegration” in the upper stage.

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The billionaire said that “there is nothing so far that suggests pushing the launch beyond next month”.

SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket – collectively called Starship – are 123 meters (403 feet) long and are intended to be fully reusable, the company says.

NASA hopes to use a modified version of the rocket as a manned lunar lander for its Artemis mission to return to the Moon.

In the more distant future, Musk wants Starship to make longer trips to Mars and back — a trip of about nine months each way.

The Starship test launch Thursday came hours after the first flight of the Blue Origin New Glenn rocket system backed by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos.

It was a big step forward for Bezos and his company that has spent years getting to the point of sending rockets into orbit.

Both Bezos and Musk want to dominate the space vehicle market.