Billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX loses spacecraft in failed test
SpaceX has launched its latest test flight of the Starship rocket, but the spacecraft has been destroyed during its reentry phase.
Billionaire Elon Musk’s company said the Starship broke apart, which was not planned.
The spacecraft’s six engines appear to have shut down one by one during its ascent, and communications were lost after eight and a half minutes of flight.
The newly designed spacecraft was supposed to fly from Texas over the Gulf of Mexico, similar to previous test flights. SpaceX had prepared 10 dummy satellites for the test launch.
A minute before the incident, SpaceX used the giant arm of the launch tower to catch the rocket booster for reentry, a feat the company has accomplished only once before. The rocket booster was hovering in the air before being grabbed by the robotic arm.
