On Wednesday, June 18 at approximately 11 p.m. CT, the Starship preparing for the tenth flight test experienced a major anomaly while on a test stand at Starbase. A safety clear area around the site was maintained throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and accounted for.
Our Starbase team is actively working to safe the test site and the immediate surrounding area in conjunction with local officials. There are no hazards to residents in surrounding communities, and we ask that individuals do not attempt to approach the area while safing operations continue
With Block 3 revealing a lot more about the engine section of superheavy, some may be confused on the new engine layout, hopefully this can help with vehicle orientation and possible understanding of the new system going forwards
We’ve submitted our final report and fulfilled our obligations to the FAA regarding the NG-1 mission booster landing attempt. New Glenn launched successfully on January 16, achieving our goal to reach orbit and deploy Blue Ring. Our ambitious attempt to land the booster, "So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance," was unsuccessful due to our three BE-4 engines not re-igniting properly. Our review confirmed that all debris landed in our designated hazard area with no threat to public safety. The report identified seven corrective actions, focusing on propellant management and engine bleed control improvements, which we’re already addressing. We expect to return to flight in late spring and will attempt to land the booster again.
What a success! At 12:30 PM CEST, Isar Aerospace's Spectrum launch vehicle successfully lifted off from Andøya Spaceport in Norway. The launch vehicle was terminated after approx. 30 seconds in flight, and the vehicle fell directly into the sea. The launch pad seems to be intact.
Over the weekend, Exploration Ground Systems teams stacked the @NASA_SLS core stage for the crewed @NASAArtemis II mission!
Read more about this operation here: https://t.co/Vy6kpeQemd
🧵1/2: Flight controllers confirmed that Athena completed lunar orbit insertion with enough accuracy to forego the IM-2 mission's optional lunar correction maneuver.
Athena continues to be in excellent health, completing lunar orbits every two hours, waiting for the sun to rise on her intended south pole region landing site, Mons Mouton.
Athena’s next planned maneuver is Descent Orbit Insertion (DOI), which is designed to lower her orbit to make a landing attempt at 11:32 on March 6.
Getting good video coverage of Andromeda is proving to be a challenge with the new lower mounting position in the test stand. Call this "Crispy Cam v2.”
Footage? Survived.
Camera? Not so much.
Better than v1, but more improvements to come...
Here’s our best summary on what happened on flight 7. We weren’t shy about the fact that this was a new ship and unfortunately one of our design changes was the most likely thing that bit us here. This is why we test! To learn, improve, and rapidly iterate to the best design possible.
Starship's seventh flight test is targeted to launch Wednesday, January 15, with a 60-minute launch window opening at 4 p.m. CT.
The Starbase team is keeping a close eye on weather conditions → https://t.co/QNCSPTewLA
New Glenn’s inaugural mission is targeting January 13. Our three-hour launch window opens Monday at 1 a.m. EST (0600 UTC).
Join us here for the webcast hosted by Ariane Cornell and Denisse Aranda beginning an hour before launch!