‘We have lost…’: Elon Musk’s SpaceX loses contact with ambitious Starship spacecraft moments after launch

SpaceX's unmanned spacecraft, Starship, aimed at ferrying astronauts to celestial bodies like the moon, faced another setback as it seemingly encountered failure mere minutes following its Saturday launch. This was the second test following a previous explosion during an attempt to breach the Earth's atmosphere.

Propelled from the Elon Musk-founded company's Starbase launch site in Texas, the two-stage rocketship ascended approximately 55 miles (90 km) above the Earth's surface, intending to undertake a 90-minute expedition into space.

While the rocket's Super Heavy first-stage booster appeared successful in executing a pivotal separation from its core stage, it met an explosive fate over the Gulf of Mexico shortly after detachment. Meanwhile, the core Starship booster continued its trajectory towards the cosmos. However, approximately 10 minutes into its flight, SpaceX's mission control abruptly lost contact with the vehicle, leaving the fate of the mission hanging in uncertainty.

John Insprucker, the host of the company's livestream, delivered the disheartening update to the global audience: "We have lost the data from the second stage... we think we may have lost the second stage."

The mission aimed to propel Starship from a Texan launchpad, ascending towards the threshold of space but falling short of orbit, then making a descent through Earth's atmosphere for a splashdown near Hawaii's coast. Originally slated for Friday, the launch faced a one-day delay due to a last-minute swap of flight-control hardware.

During its inaugural test flight on April 20, the spacecraft disintegrated within four minutes of its intended 90-minute journey, encountering issues from the onset. SpaceX admitted to malfunctions in some of the Super Heavy's 33 Raptor engines during ascent. Additionally, the lower-stage booster rocket failed to separate as intended from the upper-stage Starship before the flight met an untimely end.

What is Starship?

The Starship spacecraft is SpaceX's ambitious project designed for interplanetary travel. It's envisioned as a fully reusable spacecraft capable of carrying both crew and cargo to destinations like the Moon, Mars, and potentially beyond.

Starship consists of two main components: the spacecraft itself, which is the upper stage, and the Super Heavy booster, the massive first stage meant to propel the spacecraft out of Earth's atmosphere. It's designed to be versatile, accommodating various mission profiles, from crewed missions to satellite deployments and deep-space exploration.

One of its defining features is its potential for reusability, aiming to dramatically reduce the cost of space travel by allowing the same vehicle to be used for multiple missions.

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