SpaceX’s Starship disintegrated in the air during its ninth test flight, but the Martian dream has not been extinguished

On the evening of Tuesday, May 27 local time, after two failed explosions, SpaceX’s giant rocket “Starship” (Starship) was launched again. Although the test flight brought some breakthroughs, it failed to achieve the core goal and eventually disintegrated in the air due to loss of control. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk remained confident and promised to advance the test flight program at a faster pace in the future. According to British media confirmed on May 28, the 403-foot-tall “Starship” took off from the SpaceX launch base “Starbase” at the southern tip of Texas at 7:37 pm EST. It was the ninth test flight of the “Starship” project, using improved thermal protection tiles and special capture devices. The focus of the “Starship” launch this time is the first use of recovered boosters. According to the plan, the “Starship” will release a simulated satellite during flight to verify the ability of its payload compartment to open. Unfortunately, the payload compartment door failed to fully open, and suddenly began to spin out of control when approaching the edge of space, falling and disintegrating towards the Indian Ocean. Image 1. “Rapid unplanned disassembly” and fuel leakage problems SpaceX later confirmed that the spacecraft experienced a so-called “rapid unscheduled disassembly”, or explosive disassembly, at high altitude. According to a company statement, the team is conducting a comprehensive evaluation of the test flight data to improve future flight tests. Musk commented on the test flight on social media platforms, calling it a “significant improvement” compared to the previous two test flights, saying that the next three test flights will be conducted every three to four weeks, aiming to achieve technological breakthroughs in a short period of time. Image SpaceX flight commentator Dan Huot said in the live broadcast: “Today’s orbital mission goals are mostly unmet.” SpaceX had originally planned to test the performance of the thermal protection system of the Starship during re-entry, but due to the failure of communication, all the pictures came to an abrupt stop and the live broadcast ended. During the “Starship” test flight, SpaceX did not arrange to use a giant robotic arm for recovery, but let the booster crash into the Gulf of Mexico on its own after completing the mission. As a result, the communication with the booster was interrupted during the flight, and it eventually disintegrated into countless pieces before crashing. The picture recalls the two Starship test flights earlier this year. They failed to fly out of the Caribbean region, and crashed only a few minutes after liftoff, causing a large amount of debris to fall into the ocean. These accidents did not cause casualties or serious ground damage, but they caused disruption to air traffic. To this end, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently approved a new round of flight permits for Starship, and expanded the range of dangerous areas, while adjusting the launch time to avoid peak flight hours. Picture 2. NASA’s lunar mission As the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, the “Starship” carries the vision of human exploration of the moon and Mars. NASA has high hopes for it and plans to use it for the upcoming “Artemis” lunar program. Picture NASA asked SpaceX to make significant progress in the next year, ensuring that four astronauts will fly around the moon on the “Starship” next year. But this is just the first step. The real “big deal” is to land two astronauts from lunar orbit and return safely, which will not be possible until 2027 at the earliest