{"id":76424,"date":"2025-08-17T13:27:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T13:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/76424\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T13:27:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T13:27:11","slug":"after-repeated-explosions-new-test-for-musks-megarocket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/76424\/","title":{"rendered":"After repeated explosions, new test for Musk’s megarocket"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

The massive Starship rocket launches on a test flight from SpaceX’s base in Texas.<\/p>\n

Elon Musk’s SpaceX announced Friday that its Starship megarocket is scheduled to blast off on a new test flight next weekend after recent attempts have ended in fiery explosions.<\/p>\n

The biggest and most powerful launch vehicle in history is planned to return Americans to the moon\u2014and is central to the dreams of colonizing Mars envisioned by Musk, the world’s richest person.<\/p>\n

But repeated explosions that sent debris raining down over Caribbean islands and disrupted flights have piled pressure onto SpaceX to pull off a smoother trial run.<\/p>\n

The rocket’s 10th test flight is set to launch as soon as August 24 from the company’s Starbase facility in Texas, SpaceX said on its website.<\/p>\n

During two test flights<\/a> earlier this year, the rocket’s upper stage\u2014which is the spacecraft intended to carry crew and cargo\u2014erupted in fiery cascades not long after launch.<\/p>\n

Starship managed to make it to space during the last test in late May, however it then blew up when a fuel leak caused it to lose control.<\/p>\n

The rocket’s propulsion system was also supposed to execute a planned splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico\u2014but it disintegrated before reaching the water.<\/p>\n

Standing 403 feet (123 meters) tall, the black-and-white behemoth is designed to eventually be fully reusable and launch at relatively low cost.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Starship rocket pictured before exploding during a test flight in late May, 2025.<\/p>\n

SpaceX has been betting that its “fail fast, learn fast” ethos\u2014which helped it dominate commercial spaceflight\u2014will once again pay off.<\/p>\n

But the latest string of setbacks, which also includes an explosion during a routine ground test in June, has raised serious questions about Starship’s progress.<\/p>\n

Musk\u2014who is known for making extremely ambitious proposals\u2014maintains that the rocket will launch its first uncrewed missions to Mars next year.<\/p>\n

SpaceX has also been sharply criticized over the impact its launches have on people and the environment near where its rockets blast off.<\/p>\n

In June, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum threatened to sue SpaceX over falling debris and contamination from its launches.<\/p>\n

More Starship tests are expected in the coming months, however, after the US aviation regulator approved the number of its annual launches increasing from five to 25.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \u00a9 2025 AFP\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCitation:
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAfter repeated explosions, new test for Musk’s megarocket (2025, August 16)
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tretrieved 17 August 2025
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfrom https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2025-08-explosions-musk-megarocket.html\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The massive Starship rocket launches on a test flight from SpaceX’s base in Texas. Elon Musk’s SpaceX announced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[49,48,999,1000,314,996,66,997,306,61,998],"class_list":["post-76424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-materials","tag-nanotech","tag-physics","tag-physics-news","tag-science","tag-science-news","tag-space","tag-technology","tag-technology-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}