SpaceX's Starship spacecraft exploded on March 6 (local time) after leaving the launch site from Texas, marking the second consecutive failure this year of the Elon Musk-led Mars mission.
The explosion prompted the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to temporarily suspend a number of flights in Florida and investigate the cause of the incident.
The Starship took off at 6:30 p.m. on March 6, Eastern time (23:30 GMT) from SpaceX's rocket launch facility in Boca Chica, Texas. The first phase of the missile, the Super Heavy, returned to Earth as planned and was successfully captured by SpaceX.
However, just a few minutes later, the Starship's upper deck began to lose control in space, many engines stopped working, and communication with the ship was completely lost.
Images from SpaceX's live broadcast show the debris burning into the sky in southern Florida and the Bahamas. The FAA immediately suspended flights at Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and Orlando airports due to concerns about debris from the blast.
SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot commented on the airwaves: "Unfortunately, this happened before, so we have experience in handling situations."
SpaceX confirmed the Starship's failure in an official statement, describing that the spacecraft went through an "unplanned dismantling process" while taking off, leading to a loss of communication. Although the exact cause has not been determined, there are many signs that the flight end automation system may have been activated after the train encountered a serious problem.
The FAA said the investigation would require SpaceX to analyze the cause of the failure and receive approval before the Starship could make further flights. Earlier, in January, another Starship explosion also dropped debris in the Caribbean Sea, causing minor damage to a vehicle in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
It is noteworthy that the FAA has granted a license for this test flight even though the investigation into the previous failure is still ongoing. The FAA said it had reviewed initial information from SpaceX and assessed that the flight could continue.
The Starship, at 123m high, is a core part of Elon Musk's plan to bring people to Mars by the end of the decade. However, recent consecutive failures are posing many challenges to the program's progress.
This flight is designed to complete almost all of its orbit around the Earth and re-entering the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean, simulating the landing process that SpaceX wants to do on land in the future. However, with the recent incident, the Starship's development may be delayed as it will have to wait for investigations and approval from the FAA before it can continue testing.
