SpaceX is gearing up for its eighth test flight of the Starship rocket this Friday. This comes after a challenging previous test where the upper stage of Starship was lost during flight. The team is now shedding light on what went wrong.
During a successful launch on January 16, SpaceX also managed to catch the lower-stage booster for the second time. However, things took a turn about eight minutes into the flight, leading to the loss of the upper stage.
SpaceX attributed the incident to “flashes” observed after the stages separated. They noted that two minutes after separation, a flash occurred near the aft section of the vehicle, which is an area known as the “attic.” A pressure rise detected by sensors indicated a possible leak:
“Approximately two minutes into its burn, a flash was observed in the aft section… Sensors in the attic detected a pressure rise indicative of a leak after the flash was seen.”
Just two minutes later, a second flash was spotted. This time, it was accompanied by sustained fires in the attic, which prompted a controlled shutdown of most of Starship’s engines. As a result, communication was lost:
“These fires caused all but one of Starship’s engines to execute controlled shutdown sequences and ultimately led to a loss of communication with the ship.”
SpaceX explained that Starship was destroyed before it could activate its safety destruct system, which was functioning properly when contact was lost. The likely cause of the failure was found to be a harmonic response that was much stronger than expected:
“The most probable root cause… was identified as a harmonic response several times stronger in flight than had been seen during testing.”
Despite these challenges, SpaceX is ready for another launch attempt. Elon Musk has indicated that this test could pave the way for numerous Starship launches planned for the future, possibly up to 25 by 2025.
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