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SpaceX Starship explodes in flight above Caribbean

2 min read

In one 24-hour period, both Blue Origin and SpaceX launched test flights of their new big rockets. Neither went exactly as planned.

First up was Blue Origin's New Glenn. After more than two decades of development, this was the first orbital flight for the company founded by Jeff Bezos. The 98-meter (321') rocket successfully launched from Blue Origin's pad at Kennedy Space Center, climbed remarkably slowly into the night sky, and successfully delivered a test satellite into orbit.

Where New Glenn failed was in recovering the booster. Booster recovery and reuse is a big part of what is supposed to make New Glenn competitive with SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launchers, but shortly after the booster relit its engines to slow its descent, Blue Origin reported a loss of signal. It's likely that the rocket exploded at an altitude of around 85,000' somewhere in the vicinity of a waiting remotely operated landing barge.

Blue Origin will likely be ready for a second try sometime this summer. They are anxious to get two successful launches under their belt to qualify for Defense Department contracts.

Just a few hours later, SpaceX was scheduled for the seventh test flight of the even more enormous 123-meter (403') Starship. This was to be the first test of a new upper stage featuring larger fuel tanks and a redesign of the flaps and heatshield.

However, the "block 2" Starship recovery systems never got a chance. Even though SpaceX pulled off the spectacular feet of catching the huge booster for a second time, the upper stage was lost around 8:53 into the flight. Shortly before it was lost, images from the ship showed fire escaping from inside the hull and displays showed engines failing one by one until the ship exploded and broke up around 124 kilometers (77 miles) above the islands of the Turks and Caicos.

As a result of the explosion, dozens of airline flights in the area were hastily ordered to adjust their course or even turn around to avoid the cloud of falling debris reentering the atmosphere and streaming toward the ocean.

At least one group of airline passengers got a view of that debris cloud that had to be absolutely terrifying.

This isn't the first time Starship has been destroyed in flight. Both the booster and the upper stage were destroyed on the first flight — an event made extra disturbing because SpaceX's auto-destruct system failed. The booster exploded again on the second flight and even though the upper stage reached a near-orbital velocity, it spun through space out of control before entering and breaking up above the Indian Ocean.

Blue Origin's exploding booster happened well out at sea in an area cleared of traffic. But SpaceX's failure, and the threat it created for air traffic and people on the ground, was spectacular enough that it should result in a serious FAA investigation and a prolonged delay in the Starship program.

Don't count on it. Even before Trump takes office, Musk has proven effective in recent months in pressuring the FAA to bend the rules for SpaceX. He's already signaled that they don't think what happened with Starship's 7th launch was a big deal and don't expect to make many changes before moving on to another test.

There's a good chance that Starship will be flying again months before the next New Glenn launch.

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