ELON MUSK’S STARSHIP FLIGHT 7 BREAKS UP IN SPACE, DEBRIS SEEN IN TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS SKIES
The booming sound and huge trail of fire and smoke seen in the skies over Turks and Caicos Islands today, Thursday, January 16, 2025, came from Elon Musk’s Starship Flight 7 which broke apart 8.5 minutes after it was launched into mission.
In an exclusive interview, Tariq Malik, Editor-in-Chief of Space.com, told The SUN that SpaceX is studying the incident to understand why the Ship vehicle failed during ascent, and what changes will be needed for the next Flight 8 test later this year.
“The fireballs and debris visible that are being reported over Turks and Caicos appear to be the remains of SpaceX’s Starship Flight 7 Ship vehicle, which failed and broke apart as it was launching to space on Thursday. SpaceX launched the Starship vehicle and its Super Heavy booster from the company’s Starbase facility near Boca Chica Beach in South Texas, but reported an anomaly with the Ship vehicle as it was nearing its final engine burn,” Malik explained.
“SpaceX then lost contact with the Ship vehicle, and later reported that it suffered a “rapid unscheduled disassembly” – a term SpaceX uses when a rocket explodes. The Starship Flight 7 Ship was a new version of Starship that carried several upgrades. It had redesigned flaps and 25% more fuel onboard. This Ship was carrying 10 dummy satellites to be deployed on the test, but those were lost, too. The giant first stage Super Heavy booster, which successfully separated from the Ship vehicle during launch, successfully returned to Earth and SpaceX captured it with the giant metal “chopstick” arms of its Mechazilla launch pad structure at the Starbase facility.”
The Sun
By Hayden Boyce, Editor-in-Chief
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