Washington [US], May 28: Billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX company launched the Starship spacecraft for the 9th time this morning, May 28, from Texas and lost control after about half an hour of flight.
The Starship spacecraft, consisting of two parts, the Starship and the Super Heavy rocket, was launched from SpaceX 's Starbase in Texas at 6:36 p.m. on May 27 (7:36 a.m., May 28, Vietnam time), according to Reuters.
The Super Heavy rocket booster had 33 Raptor engines, which produced the power to push the spacecraft into the air, shaking nearby buildings, SpaceX commentators said in live video. This was the first time the Super Heavy booster had been reused.
About 1 minute after launch, the rocket reaches the point of maximum aerodynamic stress, called Max Q.
After the booster and spacecraft separated, SpaceX lost contact with the booster and assumed it had crashed into the ocean, instead of in a controlled descent as planned. SpaceX did not return the booster to the launch tower during this test.
The Starship continued its flight and climbed to its planned suborbital altitude after about nine minutes of flight.
According to the plan, the spacecraft will open its doors to release simulated satellites into space, then end the test flight lasting about 90 minutes with a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean.
However, the Starship's cargo doors did not open, and after about 30 minutes of flight, SpaceX announced that it had lost control of the spacecraft, causing it to spin as it re-entered the atmosphere. According to Reuters, this flight had flown farther than the previous two.
NASA is looking to Starship to return humans to the moon in its Artemis 3 mission. However, SpaceX's two test launches before May 27 ended with the spacecraft exploding, causing debris to fall on many islands in the Caribbean and affecting aviation activities.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
