tech
Newest Starship booster is significantly damaged during testing early Friday
SpaceX had big plans for the upgraded Starship vehicle that failed on Friday morning.
TL;DR
- SpaceX's Starship Booster 18 sustained major damage during pre-launch testing.
- The incident occurred at the Massey’s Test Site in South Texas early Friday morning.
- The damage appeared to be in the liquid oxygen tank section of the booster.
- This was the first Starship Version 3, intended to have design fixes and upgrades.
- The booster never reached the phase of testing its 33 upgraded Raptor engines.
- The failure is considered a significant setback for SpaceX's development timeline and goals, including lunar missions.
- SpaceX is known for rapid failure diagnosis and recovery, but this loss impacts near-term objectives.
- The company aims for regular and reliable Starship flights, booster landing and reuse, and operational Starlink deployment missions.