Like a shower of shooting stars. During a new test flight Thursday from a space base in Texas, Elon Musk’s SpaceX company achieved the feat, for the second time, of catching up with the first stage of its Starship megarocket. However, she lost all contact with the upper stage, which exploded in mid-flight.
Hundreds of pieces of debris appeared in the sky above the Turks and Caicos Islands, the British Virgin Islands, giving rise to multi-colored streaks and quite spectacular images. “Success is uncertain, but fun is guaranteed!” », Elon Musk preferred to laugh, sharing a video on his account with more than 32 million views.
The scene was observed by many stunned spectators, from land or a plane, who shared videos on social networks. “It’s incredible,” one of them can be heard commenting.
CNN shared an audio recording of a pilot speaking to air traffic control: “We just saw a significant contrail, at least 60 miles (96 km d’altitude), there are all these different colors. I’m just curious. It looked like he was coming towards us (light laughter)… »
According to Elon Musk, the explosion was likely triggered by an “oxygen/fuel leak.” Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist interviewed by the American media, explained that the explosion occurred “over the Bahamas, the debris passed over the Turks and Caicos Islands a few minutes later at around 120 km altitude”. They “probably fell a few minutes later into the sea north of Puerto Rico and the British Virgin Islands,” he said.
-Hijacked planes
As impressive as this explosion is, it is not without consequences. The US aviation regulator, the FAA, reported that it had “briefly slowed and diverted aircraft around the area of falling space vehicle debris”.
SpaceX posted a message in which they ask people who find debris from the rocket to “not handle it” or “recover it directly” but to contact local authorities or the American company directly.
This was Starship’s seventh test flight, the first having resulted in explosions – intentional or not – of the device. With each new flight, the company evolves its rocket. Elon Musk’s company is known for stringing together high-risk tests in order to quickly adapt its rocket according to the problems encountered. A risky method which has made it successful, SpaceX having taken a big lead over its competitor Blue Origin, of Jeff Bezos.
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