SpaceX launches its giant new rocket but a pair of explosions ends the second test flight
Washington, Nov 18: SpaceX launched its mega rocket Starship on Saturday, but lost the booster and then the spacecraft minutes into the test flight.
The booster had sent the rocketship toward space, but communication was lost eight minutes after liftoff from South Texas and SpaceX declared that the vehicle had failed.
The trouble cropped up as the ship's engines were almost done firing to put it on an around-the-world path. Minutes earlier, the booster exploded, but not until its job was done, putting the ship on a course toward space.
At 400 feet, Starship is the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built.
The first test flight in April ended in an explosion soon after liftoff.
SpaceX's giant new rocket blasted off from South Texas on a test flight Saturday, seven months after the first try ended in an explosion.
The 397-foot (121-metre) Starship rocket thundered into the sky and arced out over the Gulf of Mexico. The goal was to separate the spaceship from its booster and send it into space.
SpaceX aimed for an altitude of 150 miles (240 kilometers), just high enough to send the bullet-shaped spacecraft around the globe before ditching into the Pacific near Hawaii about 1 1/2 hours after liftoff, short of a full orbit.
Starship is the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built. Its first flight in April lasted four minutes, with the wreckage crashing into the gulf. Since then, Elon Musk's company has made dozens of improvements to the booster and its 33 engines as well as the launch pad.
Starship liftoff in slow motion pic.twitter.com/PuWMVyU6Lc
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 18, 2023
The booster experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly shortly after stage separation while Starship's engines fired for several minutes on its way to space
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 18, 2023
With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s test will help us improve Starship’s reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multiplanetary
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 18, 2023
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Money laundering probe: ED raids ex-DPIIT secretary Ramesh Abhishek
New Delhi (PTI): The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday raided the premises of retired IAS officer and former Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) secretary Ramesh Abhishek as part of a disproportionate assets linked money laundering probe against him, official sources said.
The ED case stems from a recent CBI FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against the 1982-batch officer. He was raided by the CBI in February.
Abhishek retired in 2019 from the DPIIT (erstwhile Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion).
The ED is searching the premises of Abhishek as part of a money laundering investigation, the sources said.
The CBI had alleged in its FIR that Abhishek enriched himself "illicitly" after retirement by receiving "huge amounts" as consultation fee from private companies whose matters he had dealt while in service.
The CBI and ED have also booked his daughter Vanessa.
The retired officer also held the post of chairman, Forward Markets Commission, and the CBI case was booked against him on a reference from anti-corruption ombudsman Lokpal.
The Lokpal has alleged that the father-daughter duo received big amounts as professional fee from various entities and organisations with whom the former IAS officer had official dealings as the secretary or the chairman.
