The seventh test flight of the space megacohete Starshipheld on January 16, had a bittersweet result. While Spacex was able to capture the propeller in the launch tower Superbooster For the second time, The spacecraft Starship disintegrated at 8 minutes from takeoffwithout being able to meet most of the objectives proposed for this mission. This Monday, Elon Musk has announced that the eighth test flight will take place on Friday, February 28 and Spacex has explained in detail what was bad on the last flight and why Starship explodedproducing a rain of burning remains that affected air traffic on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
According to Elon Musk’s company on a publication on its website, A series of fires in the back section of Starshiplocated between the lower part of its liquid oxygen tank and the rear thermal shield, made it ‘Everyone, except one, of the Starship engines will execute controlled off sequences’which led to the loss of communication and, finally, to the activation of the safety system of the ship that triggered its self -destruction.
The objective of the seventh test flight was Evaluate several improvements that Spacex had implemented in Starship. After a successful launch and completing a complete duration combustion, the Super Heavy propeller separated from Starship and activated a retroimpulse combustion to return to the launch site. After a new redempted 13 of its Raptor engines for landing, The Super Heavy propeller was successfully captured by the launch tower in Starbase for the second time.
With Superbooster, everything was as planned, but it was very different with Starship, the second stage of the 123 meter rocket. Approximately 2 minutes later that the ship turned on the Raptor engines of the second stage after separation, A flash was observed in the back section of Starshipknown as the ‘attic’, then detecting the sensors An increase in pressure due to a leakage. 2 minutes later, a second flash was observed, followed by sustained fires in the ‘attic’ section that led to the controlled dull of almost all Raptor engines that ‘ultimately, led to the loss of communication with the ship’.
The analysis after the flight indicated that the Autonomous flight safety system Starship activated approximately self -destruction 3 minutes after the team on land lost contact with the ship. According to Spacex, the most likely cause of the incident was The vibrationsmuch more intense during the flight of what was experienced in the tests, which caused an increase in stress that supports the propulsion system hardware and, eventually, a fuel leakage that ‘overcame the ventilation capacity of the nave attic area and caused sustained fires‘.
The explosion generated numerous debris that, as could be seen in various videos on social networks, They resembled a meteor shower on the Turkish and Caicos Islands. Although Spacex states that all ‘debris fell into the area of response to pre -established debris’, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) He diverted several flights in the area on January 16 as a result of the incident.
As part of the explosion research, in which Spacex, FAA, NASA, the National Board of Transportation Security and Space Force of the United States participate, the company carried out a 60 -second static test with Starship, in preparation for the eighth flight. After the results of this test, Spacex has made changes in the hardware of the fuel feed channels, as well as adjustments in their temperatures and in the operating thrust objectives.
The company has also incorporated additional ventilations and a ‘new purge system that uses gas nitrogen’ In the ‘attic’ section of Starship, designed to make that area more resistant to fuel leaks.
Spacex plans to launch the eighth test of Starship this Friday, but is still working with the FAA to close the investigation of the incident or receive a flight safety determination, in addition to managing a license authorization that enables its next flight from Starship ‘. This flight will try to achieve the objectives that the previous one could not; among them, Reinze a Starship engine in the space to exorbit and use the cargo dispenser mechanism to release four Starlink satellite models.