SpaceX's ninth Starship rocket launch fails. Musk: still 'great improvement'
The carrier took off from the Texas Starbase, but then went out of control and started to spin around
1' min read
1' min read
The ninth test of SpaceX's Starship rocket has failed. The 123-metre-long rocket took off from Starbase, SpaceX's launch site at the southern tip of Texas, but the spacecraft then spun out of control and began spinning around, apparently due to fuel leaks, before crash-landing uncontrollably in the Indian Ocean. The teams 'will continue to review the data and work on our next flight test,' the company said in an online statement.
Two previous launches had failed last January and March. The Starship spacecraft, equipped with the reusable first stage, the Super Heavy carrier rocket, took off around 1.30am Italian time from the Starbase launch site in Texas. "As if the flight test wasn't exciting enough, Starship underwent a quick unscheduled disassembly. Teams will continue to review data and work towards the next flight test," SpaceX said with a good dose of wit in a post on X immediately after the launch.
Despite the failure of the ninth test Elon Musk, CEO and founder of SpaceX, spoke of a "great improvement" over the previous two tests and promised a faster launch pace in the future, with Starship flying every three to four weeks for the next three tests. "Starship has reached the expected engine shutdown point, a big improvement over the previous flight. There is a lot of interesting data to analyse,' Musk wrote on X.
