Starship's seventh test flight sees Super Heavy return successfully, but the Starship disintegrates in mid-air



SpaceX, an aerospace company led by Elon Musk, conducted the seventh test flight of the spacecraft 'Starship. The first stage booster, Super Heavy, successfully returned to the launch pad, but the second stage of Starship lost communication after reaching outer space and disintegrated.

Starship's Seventh Flight Test - SpaceX

https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-flight-7



X broadcast the test flight live.




Starship launch. The first stage, Super Heavy, is a reused version of the one that returned from the fifth test flight .




Two minutes and 40 seconds after launch, the first and second stages separate, and the first stage, Super Heavy, turns around and returns to the launch pad.




Six minutes and 55 seconds after launch, Super Heavy returned to the launch pad. As in the fifth test flight, the launch pad's catch mechanism, Mechazilla, was used to safely return Super Heavy to the pad.




After the second stage of Starship reached space, payload deployment tests were scheduled to take place, but an official statement was made that an 'unexpected rapid disintegration' had occurred.




Pieces of the Starship have been photographed re-entering the atmosphere from various locations.

Space debris seen from cruise ship 1-16-25 - YouTube











Aircraft flying nearby were forced to change course to avoid the Starship wreckage.




Musk shared what is currently known about the X-Force mission, saying, 'There is a high possibility that there was an oxygen/fuel leak in a cavity near the ship's engine firewall.' He also expressed enthusiasm for the next test flight, saying, 'At this point, it doesn't seem necessary to postpone the next launch until next month or later.'


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in Hardware,   Vehicle,   Video, Posted by log1d_ts