The Space Company Spacex yesterday launched the eighth trial flight of its great Starship rocket from its “Starbase” launch site located in the southern Texas. After the regular Lift-off (as the take-off of a missile is called), about seven minutes of flight the huge first stadium booster, known as Super Heavy, returned to the Starbase with a spectacular “capture” by the “arms” of the launch tower, a maneuver that therefore repeated for the third time in the history of Spacex.
The upper stadium, 52 meters high and called “Ship”, continued to fly by heading south-east to the Atlantic Ocean. The Mission flight program provided that Ship distributed four useful loads, fictitious versions of the internet satellites of the Starlink constellation, on a suborbital trajectory to be reached about 17.5 minutes after take -off, before performing a controlled illustration in the Indian Ocean off the western Australia, about 50 minutes later. However, this did not happen: some of the Ship rappers of the Ship Motors spoiled themselves towards the end of the rise of ascent and the vehicle started losing the correct structure by revolving around its longitudinal axis. About nine minutes later, Spacex lost contact, while the explosion was noticed from the ground.
Dan Huot, reference of Spacex for the media and live commentator of the streaming of the launch, commented: “We still have a lot to learn on this vehicle, obviously there is a lot to examine, a lot to deepen and we will give ourselves to be able to understand how to avoid these episodes.” To admire great artificial fires, or the debris of the rocket that disintegrated and fell into the ocean, were the inhabitants of the Bahamas.
At the moment, and as had already happened on February 24, the causes of destruction would be attributable to “a harmonious response several times stronger in flight than it had been seen during the tests, which led to an increase in stress on the mechanical components in the propulsion system and this phenomenon caused propellant losses, which in turn triggered supported fires.” As then, the US aeronautical authority (FAA) conducted a joint investigation with the manufacturer, however, reaching the conclusion of having understood the causes, approved the remedies and granted the company to permit to launch the flight 8 after completing a safety review.
Among the measures taken to minimize the possibilities that the problem recurred on flight 8, Spacex had conducted a campaign of fire resistance tests of the fuel lines for a duration of 60 seconds, after which he had declared to the federal body as he would manage the regulation of the propellant temperature, that is, adding further air intakes and a new purge system that uses gaseous nitrogen.
During future operating missions, Spacex plans to recover both Super Heavy and Ship at its base, reporting both modules to the launch tower. This strategy will reduce the time between two consecutive launches, reaching even more lift-off per day. But to get there it will still take time, also to analyze the state of some of the tiles of the thermal shield detached from the upper stage of flight n ° 8.
Spacex, in the description of the mission, said: “Different options of metal tiles, including one with active cooling system, will be carefully tested to protect starships during the return phase; Non -structural versions of the Starship capture fittings are installed on the sides of the vehicle to verify its thermal performance, together with other changes. ” In addition, Elon Musk’s company has tested new radar sensors on the Starbase launch tower with the aim of increasing precision in the measurement of the distances between the “arms” of the tower and a space vehicle during the return phase.
So it seems too early to be able to affirm with certainty what went wrong in flight 8, so it is not clear what further Spacex changes could make in the future. However, the company believes that the combination of immense power and full reuse of the Starship system will make the first human settlement on Mars possible.
To date, the rocket has flown into a complete configuration for the first time in April 2023; He flew twice that year and four times in 2024, while for 2025 at least 25 missions are scheduled.
