{"id":253904,"date":"2025-03-07T11:22:29","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T11:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/07\/second-spacex-flight-crash-is-a-new-blow-for-musks-mars-programme\/"},"modified":"2025-03-07T11:22:29","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T11:22:29","slug":"second-spacex-flight-crash-is-a-new-blow-for-musks-mars-programme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/07\/second-spacex-flight-crash-is-a-new-blow-for-musks-mars-programme\/","title":{"rendered":"Second SpaceX flight crash is a new blow for Musk’s Mars programme"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In just two years’ time, the SpaceX Starship is due to land people on the surface of the moon \u2013 and if you believe Elon Musk, embark on a mission to Mars.<\/p>\n

So it’s a significant setback for the rocket to explode so spectacularly – and publicly – for the second time<\/strong><\/a> in as many months.<\/p>\n

Just nine-and-a-half minutes into test flight eight, contact was lost with the upper stage. A SpaceX livestream showed the engines cutting out and the rocket veering out of control.<\/p>\n

Fiery debris was then seen streaking across the sky.<\/p>\n

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\n SpaceX’s next-generation Starship spacecraft pictured before its launch. Pic: Reuters
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“Success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve Starship’s reliability,” the company said.<\/p>\n

Learning through failure is what drives SpaceX and its founder Elon Musk.<\/p>\n

The company had already made design changes in response to the failure of test flight seven<\/strong><\/a> in January.<\/p>\n

Its investigation concluded vibrations had stressed hardware in the propulsion system, which leaked and exploded.<\/p>\n

The Federal Aviation Administration was satisfied that the engineering upgrades met its safety requirements.<\/p>\n

But once again there has been a failure and the company has started a second investigation using video from inside the rocket and system data leading up to the explosion.<\/p>\n

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Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n


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Moment SpaceX test flight seven explodes <\/span>
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Starship is on an incredibly tight testing schedule.<\/p>\n

Flights had been due to ramp up this year, with 25 planned – all increasingly ambitious.<\/p>\n

There’s a lot to be done before humans can clamber aboard.<\/p>\n

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\n Donald Trump and Elon Musk watch a SpaceX test flight launch in November. Pic: Reuters
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For such a large rocket to reach the moon it will need to be refueled before it leaves the Earth’s orbit.<\/p>\n

So upwards of half a dozen ‘tanker’ versions of Starship will need to be launched, and the propellant then pumped into the rocket heading to the moon.<\/p>\n

There it will orbit, waiting for astronauts to arrive on NASA’s own Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, and then take them down to the lunar surface.<\/p>\n

But a safe landing on the rugged terrain of the moon’s south pole is far from guaranteed, as Thursday’s touchdown by Intuitive Machines’ Athena spacecraft shows. It appears to have fallen over<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

NASA and SpaceX are having to push hard to beat China back to the moon in a quest for water and minerals.<\/p>\n

Read more:
The space race for the moon’s water<\/a>
Second ever private moon landing touches down<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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\n China launches its Chang’e 6 lunar probe in Hainan province in May last year. Pic: Reuters
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And Elon Musk has talked about sending the first uncrewed Starships to Mars in 2027 and astronauts soon after.<\/p>\n

But there is a risk. The Space Shuttle was one of the most complex machines ever built. One blew up on launch, another on its return to Earth. Both were the result of hardware failures.<\/p>\n

NASA is more risk-averse these days. That’s why the “stranded” astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were kept on the International Space Station<\/a><\/strong> rather than riding home on the hobbled Boeing spacecraft.<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen whether the space agency comes under increasing pressure from Donald Trump’s administration to take more risks to win the space race.<\/p>\n

But it certainly won’t want to put its astronauts on a rocket that just isn’t ready.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In just two years’ time, the SpaceX Starship is due to land people on the surface of the moon \u2013 and if you believe Elon Musk, embark on a mission to Mars. So it’s a significant setback for the rocket to explode so spectacularly – and publicly – for the second time in as many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/25\/03\/768x432\/skynews-spacex-starship-spacecraft_6846079.jpg?20250304151628","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[607],"tags":[3381,21,850,251,2535,19189,23],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253904"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253904"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253906,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253904\/revisions\/253906"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}