SpaceX ship explosion likely caused by propellant leak, says Elon Musk

The explosion that destroyed the upper stage of SpaceX’s Starship vehicle yesterday (January 16) was likely caused by a leak, Elon Musk said.

Starship launched yesterday afternoon from SpaceX’s Starbase site in south Texas, kicking off the seventh flight test of the 403-foot-tall (123-meter) megarocket.

Things went well at first. The vehicle’s two stages – the Super Heavy booster and the Ship’s upper stage spacecraft – separated in time, and Super Heavy returned to Starbase as planned, where it was caught by the ship’s “wand” arms. the launch tower.

However, the ship ran into trouble shortly after its partner’s big moment. The 171-foot-tall (52 m) spacecraft broke apart over the Atlantic Ocean about 8.5 minutes after liftoff, creating an aerial spectacle seen by observers from the Turks and Caicos Islands and others neighboring localities.

Although the investigation into the anomaly is in its early stages, SpaceX has already identified a probable cause, according to Musk, the company’s founder and CEO.

“The preliminary indication is that we had an oxygen/fuel leak into the cavity above the ship’s engine firewall that was large enough to create pressure in excess of the ventilation capacity. In addition to an obvious double check for leaks, we’ll add fire suppression “Volume and probably increase ventilation area, nothing so far suggests pushing the next launch beyond next month,” Musk said via. X, the social media platform he owns, approx. 2.5 hours after the launch of Flight 7. (Starship’s Raptor engines are powered by liquid oxygen and liquid methane.)

As the last part of this article indicates, SpaceX plans to fly Starship often in 2025; the company has requested permission to launch the megarocket from Starbase up to 25 times this year.

Related: SpaceX grabs Super Heavy booster during Starship Flight 7 test but loses upper stage (video, photos)

This pressure overload apparently caused a fire “in the aft portion of the ship, leading to a rapid and unplanned disassembly,” SpaceX wrote in a blog post about Flight 7 last night, emphasizing that this interpretation is based on initial findings. data analyses. (“Rapid unscheduled disassembly” is a technical term for a spacecraft explosion.)

“We will conduct a thorough investigation, in coordination with the FAA, and implement corrective actions to make improvements to future Starship flight tests,” the company added, referring to the US Federal Aviation Administration.

“The spacecraft flew within its designated launch corridor – as all U.S. launches do to protect the public both on land, on the water and in the air,” SpaceX continued in the blog. “Any surviving debris would have fallen into the designated danger zone.”

Nevertheless, the anomaly had effects beyond the SpaceX sphere. “The FAA briefly slowed and diverted aircraft around the area where space vehicle debris was falling,” agency officials told Space.com via email yesterday afternoon, noting that normal flight operations had resumed shortly after.