SpaceX launched its huge Starship rocket on the program's eighth test flight Thursday, but a malfunction of some sort triggered multiple upper stage engine shutdowns and the vehicle failed to reach its planned sub-orbital altitude, breaking apart in a spectacular shower of debris.
It was the second failure in a row for a Starship upper stage, a vehicle critical to NASA's plans to return astronauts to the moon in the next few years.
"During Starship's ascent burn, the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly and contact was lost. Our team immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses," SpaceX said in a statement.
"We will review the data from today's flight test to better understand root cause. As always, success comes from what we learn, and today's flight will offer additional lessons to improve Starship's reliability."
Paleontologists have discovered a three-eyed creature with a pencil sharpener-like mouth that roamed the sea for...
The first sign of possible extraterrestrials detected in the cosmos didn't come in the form of...
Everything on Earth, in our solar system, our galaxy, and beyond is contained within the universe....
Crows are able to look at a handful of four-sided shapes and correctly distinguish those that...
