SpaceX confirmed that its third-generation Super Heavy booster, the first stage of the two-stage Starship system, suffered some kind of explosive gas problem during tests Thursday morning. in one Publish withinThe aerospace company said: “Booster 18 experienced an anomaly during gas system pressure testing, which we conducted prior to structural verification testing.”
There was no fuel in the booster as the engines were not installed at the time. No injuries were reported and the company said staff always kept a safe distance during such tests. The company said it “will take some time to investigate before we know the cause.”
It looks like the explosive release of gas, or whatever, blew off the side of the lower half of the booster. Photos taken SpaceX content creators show it in detail. Excerpt from Live broadcast This shows the incident in question at 04:00 on Friday.
The booster is part of the third generation of Starship, SpaceX’s massive, fully reusable rocket designed for high payloads. The ship weighs 5,000 tons and is more than 120 meters tall (taller than a 30-story building).
To date, Starship has completed eleven successful launches at a cost of more than $100 million per launch and five explosions during testing. Although the latest explosion was relatively harmless, previous incidents caused flaming debris to rain from the sky. SpaceX’s ultimate plan for Starship is to deliver payloads to the Moon and Mars. Recently, the latest version of the second-generation Starship completed a successful test flight in October. This happened after the first deployment of the payload in August.
86% of the world’s cargo has been sent into space carried by SpaceX from 2024, although companies like Blue Origin are investing heavily to be competitive. That’s why POTThe cost per kilogram of launch into space has decreased by 95% compared to the days of the shuttle. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch costs 20 times less per kilogram than NASA’s Space Shuttle.