SpaceX Starship spirals out of control in second straight test flight failure

SpaceX’s Starship spiraled out of control while in space during a test flight on Thursday, marking the second launch in a row that the vehicle has run into a fatal problem on its way to orbit. The company launched Starship using its Super Heavy booster and things looked normal for the first eight minutes of the flight prior to the problem. The ship successfully separated and headed into space, while the booster came back to the company’s launchpad in Texas, where it was caught for a third time by the launch tower. But at around eight minutes and nine seconds into the flight, SpaceX’s broadcast graphics showed Starship lose multiple Raptor engines on the vehicle. On-board footage showed the ship started spiraling end over end over the Gulf of Mexico. “We just saw some engines go out, it looks like we are losing attitude control of the ship,” SpaceX communications manager Dan Huot said on the broadcast. “At this point we have lost contact with the ship.” SpaceX was hoping to deploy f ... Read full article.