Elon Musk reveals surprise cause of Starship rocket explosion and says third launch has ‘really good shot’ at success

ELON Musk has revealed the hidden cause behind Starship’s most recent failed launch, ahead of a third ‘shot’ at success next month.

Starship’s second launch failure, while fiery, taught SpaceX an important lesson regarding payloads.

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On 18 November, Starship conducted its second test flight from SpaceX’s Starbase site in South Texas.

It exploded about eight minutes after liftoff, when Starship’s upper-stage spacecraft detonated due to a venting of liquid oxygen.

The US’ Federal Aviation Authority is currently overseeing an investigation into what happened on Flight 2.

But the liquid oxygen left to vent was only there because Starship wasn’t ferrying any satellites that day, Musk said in a recent company update to SpaceX employees.

So there’s a chance the second launch could have seen Starship successfully enter orbit if the rocket had a payload.

“So, Flight 2 actually almost made it to orbit,” Musk explained.

“We normally wouldn’t have that liquid oxygen if we had a payload.

“So, ironically, if it had had a payload, it would have reached orbit.”

Musk has taken a rapid development – fail fast – approach with all of SpaceX’s rockets, which onlookers, including British astronaut Tim Peake, owe to the company’s roaring success in the industry.

In his staff message, the eccentric billionaire added that SpaceX aims to begin launching its larger next-gen Starlink internet satellites aboard Starship by the end of the year.

“I think we’ve got a really good shot of reaching orbit with Flight 3, and then a rapid cadence to achieve full and rapid reusability,” he continued.

Musk has earmarked February 2024 to put Starship through a third test flight.

From Earth to Mars

Starship is the $3billion rocket that is intended to get boots on the Moon sometime around 2025, and eventually ferry humans to Mars.

Musk previously estimated his future Mars missions to occur sometime in the 2030s.

However, speaking virtually to the IAF in early October 2023, Musk suggested the rocket could land on the Red Planet in just three to four years time.

“This is a very difficult programme,” Musk said in May, adding that “the rocket is roughly two-and-a-half times the thrust of the Saturn V, so if or when it reaches orbit it’ll be by far the largest rocket to reach orbit.

“The key to expanding life beyond Earth is a fully and rapidly reusable orbital rocket.

“This is a very hard problem given the constraints… Earth has a thick atmosphere and strong gravity, it is only barely possible to do this, that is why it has not been done before.”

The 33-engine, nearly 400-feet tall, mega-rocket is designed to transport up to 100 people from Earth to the Moon and Mars.

The trip to Mars is about seven months long, meaning there will be onboard living spaces for crew members.

However, SpaceX is first focusing on getting Starship into orbit, before it begins designing the interior.

The rocket was created from the onset to be able to carry more than 100 tons of cargo to Mars and the Moon.

This is so it can store everything needed to build off-planet base camps.

Not only is it the tallest rocket to ever be flown, the first stage of Starship, known as the Super Heavy booster, is the most powerful rocket ever built and can produce up to 7.6million kilograms of thrust.

That is nearly double the current record held by Nasa’s Space Launch System (SLS).

Starship is being developed as part of a $1.15billion contract with Nasa to deliver astronauts to the Moon in the US space agency’s Artemis programme, which is currently targeted to launch in September 2026.

Though it will be a critical tool in helping Musk fulfil his dreams of making humans interplanetary – which is his primary mission for SpaceX.

This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk