SpaceX’s Starship explodes during its seventh flight

Starship’s seventh test flight ended in an explosion when the vehicle’s upper deck “experienced irreversible damage during burnout” over the Atlantic Ocean. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted a video of the event, with debris passing by and lighting up the sky. On the company’s website, Dan Huot from SpaceX’s communications team he said They “saw the engines drop on telemetry” at the end of the climb and that they eventually lost contact with the Ship, which is what the company calls the vehicle’s upper stage. SpaceX said in a tweet that it will continue to review the test data to understand the cause of the explosion.

The Federal Aviation Administration issued the permit advice to pilots when it happens, warning them of falling debris in other areas. SpaceX said before the test that it was supposed to “launch a new spacecraft with a large lift” and was supposed to conduct the first Starship test with the help of 10 Starlink simulators.

Even with the Starship’s upper stage burning, the test was only partially successful. The ship’s Raptor engines burned out during takeoff before the team encountered it about 8 minutes into the flight. SpaceX also managed to retrieve the Super Heavy booster, holding the first stage of the vehicle with mechanical arms on its Starbase platform.