Third loss of SpaceX Starship raises questions about Florida plans.
An explosion from a rocket launched from Texas that was visible as far away as the Cape Canaveral sky was not the ending SpaceX wanted for Flight 8 of their fully-stacked Starship. Nor was it the way they wanted to introduce Starship to its future Florida home.
SpaceX had announced just days earlier that Starship would launch from Kennedy Space Center by the end of the year, however, when the latest test flight took off Thursday from Boca Chica, Texas, the Ship (the rocket’s upper stage) lost engine power and tumbled out of control.
This caused it to smack back into the atmosphere as it flew over the Gulf of America, also recognized as the Gulf of Mexico, burning up over the Bahamas. Its fiery end was seen across Central and Southern Florida, prompting the Federal Aviation Administration to put a temporary flight hold on some of Florida’s busiest airports and startling people who happened to be looking skyward.
SpaceX confirmed the loss of the uncrewed ship was due to what they called “an energetic event” near the bottom of the spacecraft. As a result, the ship’s thrusters were lost. The SpaceX live coverage showed the ship tumbling out of control, and it was confirmed that last contact was made at nine minutes and 30 seconds into the flight.
This wasn’t the first time SpaceX’s ambitious Starship ran into dramatic trouble, creating an almost pyrotechnic show for the public.
It was just back in January that Starship Flight 7 ended in a similar loss over the Turks and Caicos Islands. Flights prior to this had been achieving more than 40 minutes of flying in space− the ship coasting before splashing down in the Indian Ocean.
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