A Starship launch proceeded initially but went wrong during the Super Heavy booster return sequence. After separating from Starship, the booster attempted a flip maneuver and boostback burn, but engine relight issues prevented a controlled descent, and the booster ended up in the Gulf of Mexico, causing air traffic delays. Starship reached space, but a problem with a Raptor engine forced cancellation of a planned in-space relight test, delaying demonstration of controlled deorbit capability. The FAA declared the Super Heavy anomaly a formal mishap after several days, grounding Starship while an FAA-directed investigation determines the cause. This was the 12th Starship launch and the sixth FAA grounding in three years. SpaceX emphasized mission successes while financial filings show accelerating losses.
"After separating from Starship, the Super Heavy booster attempted its flip maneuver and boostback burn, but engine relight issues prevented a controlled descent, and the craft ended up in the Gulf of Mexico, leading to air traffic delays."
"Starship reached space, but trouble with one of its Raptor engines forced SpaceX to cancel a planned in-space relight test, further delaying efforts to demonstrate controlled deorbit capability."
"It took until Wednesday for the FAA to declare the Super Heavy anomaly a formal mishap, and that means Starship is grounded while SpaceX conducts an FAA-directed investigation to determine what went wrong."
"This was Starship's 12th launch, and marked the sixth time the FAA has grounded it in the past three years. SpaceX hasn't issued a statement on the FAA mishap investigation (we asked, but didn't hear back), instead focusing on the successes of the launch - namely the deployment of 20 Starlink satellite dummies and a couple of modified satellites that took pictures of the craft in space, all of which were burned up in Earth's atmosphere following the launch."
Read at theregister
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]