The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has opened an investigation into the SpaceX Starship’s explosion over Turks and Caicos on Thursday. The explosion occurred during the craft’s latest test launch, which SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has described as a key step toward humanity’s journey to Mars.

“Following stage separation, the Starship upper stage successfully lit all six Raptor engines and performed its ascent burn to space,” SpaceX said in a statement. “Prior to the burn’s completion, telemetry was lost with the vehicle after approximately eight and a half minutes of flight. Initial data indicates a fire developed in the aft section of the ship, leading to a rapid unscheduled disassembly.”

Since April 2023, SpaceX has tested the capabilities of its Super Heavy Booster and Starship spacecraft to launch and be recovered for future use. After the explosion, Musk addressed the issue on X (formerly Twitter), analyzing what went wrong based on preliminary data.

“Preliminary indication is that we had an oxygen/fuel leak in the cavity above the ship engine firewall that was large enough to build pressure in excess of the vent capacity,” Musk wrote. “Apart from obv

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Author: Jason Nelson