“SpaceX’s Starship rocket disintegrated in space minutes after launch from Texas on Thursday.”, — write: epravda.com.ua
SpaceX’s Starship rocket disintegrated in space minutes after launch from Texas on Thursday. This is reported by the Reuters agency. It forced flights over the Gulf of Mexico to reroute to avoid falling debris and was a setback for Elon Musk’s flagship missile program. SpaceX’s mission lost contact with the newly modified Starship rocket, which was carrying its first test payload – dummy satellites – but without a crew. It happened eight minutes after liftoff from the missile complex in south Texas at 5:38 p.m. ET (22:38 GMT). Advertisement: “We have lost all communications with the ship, indicating that there has been a malfunction in the upper degree,” said SpaceX communications manager Dan Huot, confirming a few minutes later that the ship was lost. The last time Starship’s upper stage failed was in March of last year, when the ship was entering Earth’s atmosphere over the Indian Ocean. Rarely, however, have SpaceX failures caused significant disruption to air traffic. Dozens of commercial flights were diverted to other airports or rerouted to avoid potential debris, flight-tracking website FlightRadar24 reported. The US Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates private space launches, said it temporarily slowed and diverted flights in the area where the space debris fell, but normal operations have now resumed.