Starship grounded. The SpaceX rocket was suspended from flight this Friday, January 17 by the American aviation regulator, the FAA, which asked the company to open an investigation after the explosion on Thursday of the second stage of its rocket, the watches over the Caribbean.
During the 7th test flight of its Starship megarocket, the largest ever built, Elon Musk’s company managed to catch up with the first stage for the second time, a complex and spectacular maneuver. But things got worse: the second stage of the device was then the subject of a “unscheduled rapid disassembly”, according to SpaceX’s terms.
After this explosion, the FAA indicated that it had briefly diverted planes around a “space vehicle debris fall zone”. Friday, in a press release announcing the suspension of Starship flights, the FFA also specified “working with SpaceX and relevant authorities to confirm damage to property in the Turks and Caicos Islands”in the Caribbean, stressing that there was no information on possible injuries.
Images on social media taken from these Caribbean islands show streaks of light descending from the sky, which are debris from the ship.
According to the procedure, SpaceX flights will be able to resume once it has submitted its investigation to the FAA, which must include “corrective measures”and received the green light from the regulator. If the company demonstrates that it took preventive measures and that the incident did not endanger the safety of the public, SpaceX may also submit a request to resume flights before the end of the investigation.
-A possible oxygen or fuel leak caused the explosion, according to Elon Musk
The Starship megarocket should allow SpaceX and Elon Musk to reach the planet Mars and the American space agency, NASA, intends to use a modified version for its Artemis missions intended to return to the Moon in the coming years.
SpaceX is known for stringing together high-risk tests in order to quickly adapt its rocket depending on the problems encountered. A risky method which made it successful and allowed it to take a big lead over its competitor Blue Origin, the space company of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The latter successfully carried out its first flight into orbit on Thursday.
After the explosion, SpaceX posted a message on X, a social network owned by Elon Musk. According to the company, Thursday’s flight made it possible to “improve Starship reliability.
Having become one of President-elect Donald Trump’s closest allies since last year, Elon Musk, for his part, mentioned “an oxygen/fuel leak” to explain the explosion of the second stage of his rocket.
