FAA grounds SpaceX flights
James Temple was "in the right place at the right time" to take these dramatic images of SpaceX's Starship's seventh flight test disintegrating above the Atlantic Ocean
SpaceX launched another batch of its Starlink internet satellites early this morning (Jan. 21), five days after a test flight of the company's Starship megarocket ended in an explosion. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 21 Starlink satellites lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday at 12:24 a.m. EST (0524 GMT).
SpaceX pulled off its “chopsticks” catch of a Super Heavy rocket booster but lost the Starship spacecraft on Thursday during the vehicle’s seventh uncrewed test flight.
SpaceX launched Starship on Thursday for a seventh test flight, after weather concerns pushed back an experiment that will feature the spacecraft’s first payload deployment test, and while it successfully caught the Super Heavy Booster, Starship lost connection and “experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly.”
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk made light of Starship's fiery end. "Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!" he said on X.
Angry Astronaut and Nextbigfuture commenter are making the case that SpaceX and Elon Musk must switch to nuclear thermal rockets to colonize Mars. I will
Falling debris from the SpaceX Starship explosion yesterday created what looked like a meteor shower, or a colorful fireworks show based on videos shared by people in the area, but it also delayed flights.
The rocket company’s effort to demonstrate payload deployment, land its upper stage and potentially achieve spaceship-to-spaceship fuel transfer this year had an inauspicious start when the Starship system suffered a setback during the Jan. 16 flight. Minutes after launch, the Block 2 upper stage broke up when a fire developed in the aft section.
Dramatic footage showing streaks of light zipping across the sky surfaced online following Elon Musk's Starship explosion over the Atlantic Ocean.
While SpaceX lost the upper stage of its new Starship in a flight test, the futuristic spacecraft presages a spaceflight revolution, says a leading U.S. space scholar.
Elon Musk's company saw mixed results today, with Starship's booster sticking the landing while the upper stage failed during ascent.