In the ninth flight test, Spacex Lanza Starship but enters rotation and heads for re -controlled re -entry

Spacex launched its spacecraft of ships in space on Tuesday and successfully became orbit, but a suspicion of propeller escape put the spacecraft in a turn and it was expected to be burned at re -entry.

That occurs after two recent failed test flights resulted in the destruction of the spacecraft and sent debris that returned to the earth.

The ninth unmanned flight of the spacecraft from the Spacex Starbase installation near Brownsville, Texas, launched a few minutes after 7:30 pm et, after a brief delay just before takeoff and achieved the objective of the company of a suborbital trajectory.

However, several minutes after the mission, Spacex lost control of the spaceship, which entered a turn. A propellant leak seemed to be the cause. Spacex continued with Re -entrepreneur, but because they could not control the vehicle upon their return to the earth, it was expected that it would return at an angle not ideal for the heat shield that protects it from heat and was expected to be burned, with some pieces that potentially fall into the Indian Ocean.

The launch was seen as a key step in the goal of Elon Musk to eventually send humans to Mars. But before Spacex and NASA can send astronauts to the red planet, the company must show that the spacecraft can fly and return safely and reliable.

During the eighth Starship flight test in early March, several engines unexpectedly closed about 5 1/2 minutes at the launch, resulting in Spacex lost control of the ship. Communication with the vehicle was lost several minutes later.

After an investigation, the company said that a “hardware failure” with one of the engines caused the fuel to mix and turn on where it should not have done so. And although the ship was not instructed to self -destruct, Spacex says it probably did it automatically.

As the spacecraft broke, the debris fell through southern Florida and parts of the Atlantic, which led to land stop at nearby airports. The photos and videos shared on social networks showed rocket debris scratching in the sky.

A similar failure occurred in January when the strongest vibrations than expected caused a leak and explosion of the propeller. In both cases, the upper stage was lost, but the reinforcement of the first stage was successfully returned to the launch and trapped site using giant “sticks” united to the launch tower.

Spacex says that he has made significant modifications in the upper stage depending on what he learned from the previous flight tests and pointed out that, although both failures occurred at the same time during the missions, the causes were not related.

There are no astronauts aboard the previous missions, and none will be on board this time.

To reach the orbit, Starship is mounted on a super heavy 400 -foot rocket driven by 33 Raptor engines, which makes it the most powerful rocket system ever developed, according to the company. Unlike Falcon 9 partially reusable, Spacex aims to completely reusable and capable of launching, landing and flying again with minimum maintenance.

According to Spacex, the test was to mark “the first launch of a super heavy reinforcement tested in flight”, one that flew and returned during the seventh test flight. The company says that 29 of the 33 reinforcement engines would also be reused from the previous test. The engineers inspected and replaced known components of a single use such as the heat shield, but left the mostly intact reinforcement to study the wear of the real world.

Before the launch, Spacex said the reinforcement would not try to return to the launch site this time. Instead, it was to follow a modified flight route and “land” with a hard splash in the Gulf after trying new flight and landing configurations. One of the reinforcement engines was disabled during the final landing burn to determine if a backup can compensate.

The upper stage of the spacecraft will be aimed at completing the objectives that eluded Spacex during the previous missions, such as the implementation of eight Starlink satellite simulators, which would be the first for the spacecraft, and renounce a Raptor engine in space.

The spacecraft is also established to experience extreme heat tests. The engineers have eliminated some of the thermal tiles used to protect the vehicle during the re -entry, exposing vulnerable areas on purpose, the company said. Different options and mosaic materials will also be tested during launch.

“Development tests, by definition, are unpredictable. But by putting hardware in a flight environment as frequently as possible, we can quickly learn and run design changes while we seek to bring stellar ship online as a completely and quickly reusable vehicle,” Spacex said in his launch announcement.