On Saturday, SpaceX launched their Starship rocket for the second time, according to USA Today.
A video of the launch shared on social media showed people in the background cheering as it barreled toward space. However, the mission ended with an explosion.
Liftoff of Starship! pic.twitter.com/qXnGXXZP5k
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 18, 2023
“The uncrewed Starship made it into space after a successful launch from SpaceX’s private Starbase site in Boca Chica, Texas, at about 8 a.m. Eastern time,” the Today article said.
When contact with it was lost and flight controllers were unable to maintain the craft’s course a few minutes later, the order was issued to have the rocket self-destruct.
Starship liftoff through successful hot-stage separation pic.twitter.com/L2bH1pJZ2s
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 18, 2023
“While the two stages separated as planned, the first-stage booster soon began to tumble and exploded in mid-air instead of falling into the Gulf of Mexico as planned,” the outlet noted.
Despite the craft self-destructing, SpaceX later congratulated its team on the second integrated flight test.
“Starship successfully lifted off under the power of all 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy Booster and made it through stage separation,” the manufacturer said:
Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting second integrated flight test of Starship!
Starship successfully lifted off under the power of all 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy Booster and made it through stage separation pic.twitter.com/JnCvLAJXPi
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 18, 2023
In April, SpaceX conducted its first rocket launch, but the mission was unsuccessful due to a mid-flight failure, as reported by Breitbart News.
“The Starship rocket is designed to carry both people and cargo, and is crucial to NASA’s plan to have astronauts on the moon once again. In 2021, NASA announced that it had awarded a contract to SpaceX for nearly $3 billion,” the outlet said.
Musk’s SpaceX has reportedly seen an increase in worker injuries as the company focuses its attention on Mars colonization, according to a report by Breitbart News on Thursday.
“At least 600 employee injuries that were previously not public knowledge include traumatic brain injuries, severed limbs, and a death,” the article read, adding, “SpaceX’s disregard for worker safety allegedly stems partly from Musk’s aversion to perceived bureaucracy and his relentless drive to achieve his Mars mission.”
When contact with it was lost and flight controllers were unable to maintain the craft’s course a few minutes later, the order was issued to have the rocket self-destruct.
That statement MUST BE FALSE. If contact was lost, the order to self destruct COULD NOT be issued.
The one thing clear from the article is that the author does not understand what happened. Giving the article the benefit of the doubt, the launch was VERY successful, and the rocket self-destructed BY DESIGN after losing contact.
Elon Musk has shown in various public and private arenas that his judgment is flawed, so it’s not surprising that what he does is generating death and mayhem around space efforts as is the case around media he controls that is causing teenager problems. Space travel is risky but NASA once limited deaths due to its bureaucracy that Musk hates. Likewise his ignoring targeted policies that protect youngsters online with ‘X’, suggestions by government bureaucrats that Musk doesn’t want to govern his public facility are harming children. There is a reason for bureaucracy that isn’t present in Musk activities and bad things are happening. His companies that involve the public–space funds in the billions of dollars and the lives and well-being of those on his media companies–must be regulated by congress since he ignores the lives and safety of those around him.
No one in this country needs more regulating from congress.
You must be one of main stream media “journalists “. Making shit up.
can’t be a good look for the planned mars mission- some minds will now change.
You people questioning the success of this launch might want to research the beginnings of the space race in the sixties. Every step is a success. And now all of a sudden 600 people at space x are experiencing traumatic brain injuries, severed limbs or dying?? Don’t believe it. If it was true, this would have came out the minute he bought Twitter.
The tallest, heaviest, and most powerful rocket to ever enter space was just launched by Elon Musk. It is the future of space travel.
This was only a test flight of an older version of Starship and the Super Heavy Booster, built a year ago. Elon Musk only predicted a 60% change of success, prior to the lsunch. They achieved monumental goals and gathered massive amounts of data. Everything that was accomplished is considered a success.
Anyone who calls this a “disaster” has no understanding of exactly what a test flight is and is a bit of an ignorant fool.
Also, Flight Termination Systems are automatic. No signal was sent.
Safe and slow NASA has had 17 astronaut deaths, SpaceX has none.
????
This story is full of errors. This is experimental and you need to do more research before saying it was a failure. I also question the number of injuries listed. Where is that number coming from? I would like to see some proof.
When contact with it was lost and flight controllers were unable to maintain the craft’s course a few minutes later, the order was issued to have the rocket self-destruct. (Hopefully, if contact is lost during the self-destruct signal transmission, the rocket will impact only countries with whom we have friendly relations.)
It’s not a disaster. That’s the way SpaceX designs. The government designs and designs until everything is perfect and then they build. It takes years. SpaceX does a design that they think will work with just the required amount of margin to be reasonable safe, they test it, if it fails they fix what broke. Their design process moves 10 times faster than the government and costs less. That’s reflected in their very cheep launch prices. The Falcon and the Falcon Heavy were designed the exact same way and now they’re two of the most reliable rockets out there. Stop trying to sensationalize everything.