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SpaceX's Starship launch spread potentially harmful debris far and wide [1]

['Chris Young']

Date: 2023-04-25 11:23:40+00:00

SpaceX launched its fully-stacked Starship rocket for the very first time last week.

Though the mission ended with a dramatic explosion, it was largely seen as a success — given the fact that SpaceX collected a wealth of data before purposefully pressing the self-destruct button as Starship started to veer off course.

It's all in keeping with SpaceX's fail fast, learn fast approach, as the company is already looking ahead to the next orbital launch attempt of Starship.

However, reports are also emerging of some of the potentially harmful, unintentional effects of the launch. SpaceX, the FAA, and others are now investigating the destruction caused by Starship's bevy of Raptor engines, starting with a massive crater at the launch pad.

SpaceX assesses damage, eyes next Starship launch attempt

The 394-foot-tall (120 meters) Starship rocket reached a maximum altitude of 39 kilometers (24 miles) before engine failures caused it to start to spiral and deviate from its planned trajectory. This caused SpaceX to trigger the termination system as Starship was flying over the Gulf of Mexico.

Following Starship's explosion, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded the Starship program as part of a standard procedure "mishap investigation", a report from CNBC explains.

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[1] Url: https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/spacexs-starship-launch-spread-potentially-harmful-debris-far-and-wide

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