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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Truck driver burnt alive after collision amid dense fog on UP highway
Etawah (PTI): A truck driver was burnt alive after two trucks collided amid dense fog on the Agra-Etawah-Kanpur six-lane highway here, police said on Friday.
The accident occurred late Thursday night near the Pakka Bagh overbridge on National Highway-2.
Police said a truck carrying gypsum from Ahlanabad in Haryana to Varanasi rammed into another truck ahead of it after the latter suddenly applied brakes amid poor visibility due to dense fog.
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Following the collision, the truck loaded with gypsum caught fire, which quickly spread to the cabin. The driver remained trapped inside the cabin and was engulfed by flames, resulting in his death on the spot, police said.
Passersby informed the police and fire brigade about the blaze. Three fire tenders were rushed to the spot and firefighters managed to douse the fire after nearly an hour of strenuous efforts. By then, the cabin of the truck had been completely gutted.
The incident and subsequent firefighting operations led to disruption of traffic on the busy highway for several hours, police said.
After the fire was extinguished, police recovered the charred remains of the driver from the burnt cabin. The deceased was identified as Jaskirat Singh alias Lovely, a resident of Sirsa in Haryana, by the driver of another truck travelling behind, police said.
Police said the collision occurred due to sudden braking by the truck ahead in dense fog, leaving the following driver with little time to react. A crane was later used to remove the burnt truck from the road and traffic was restored.
The remains of the deceased have been sent for postmortem examination after completing necessary formalities, police added.
