Elon Musk’s gigantic Megacohete has exploded as soon as possible to take off from the Boca Chica base (Texas, USA). It happened on January 17 of the starship test and has happened again on the night of March 6 to 7 during the eighth experimental launch of the artifact. And as in the previous incident, the explosion has forced to divert air traffic in the area on which the remains of the rocket, 120 meters long, fell spectacularly, from the south of Florida to Bahamas, affecting the area of the Gulf of Mexico.
Some videos published on social networks, taken from these locations, show how innumerable incandescent remains of the rocket spread over the Caribbean. The moment of the fall of those dangerous pieces has even been collected.
As on the previous occasion, the Federal Aviation Administration of the USA (FAA) has notified Spacex to carry out an incident investigation to “identify corrective measures to prevent it from happening again”. “During the incident, the FAA activated an area of response to debris and temporarily reduced air traffic outside the area where remains of the space vehicle fell or stopped airplanes in its output location,” he explained in a statement. The notice issued briefly stopped commercial activity at the airports of Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and Orlando. Flights also diverted around the Turks and Caicos. The starship will not fly again until the FAA “determines that no system, process or procedure related to the incident represents a risk for public security.”
That of what happened does not help determine the true causes of the accident. “Before the end of the ascent, an energy event at the back of the spacecraft caused the loss of several Raptor engines. This, in turn, caused the loss of attitude control and, ultimately, the loss of communications with the spaceship, ”said Spacex in a statement published on its website a few hours after the accident. “The final contact with Starship arrived approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds after takeoff.”
In January, the rocket exploded at eight minutes of flight. On the previous experimental flights of Starship, the device had already been, so these two incidents followed are an important setback in the launch of the most powerful ship in history, essential for Musk’s plans to reach the Moon and Mars.
The incident occurs in the middle of the controversial landing of Musk in the US administration, where he intends to cut funds wildly. Among his maneuvers in federal agencies, media as they have published that the tycoon, owner of Spacex, would also be intervening in the FAA. One of the attributions of this agency is to regulate and control commercial space traffic, that is, to grant the permits to Spacex to fly their rockets.
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