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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'What if she was collector's daughter', rues mother of girl stuck in Rajasthan borewell for 6 days
Rajasthan: For more than 110 hours, Dholi Devi is anxiously praying to god and the rescue team to pull out her three-year-old daughter Chetna from of a 150-foot deep borewell in which she is stuck since December 23.
With hours ticking by inexorably and hopes for her survival fading, rescuers are racing against time to pull out Chetna, who fell into the borewell while playing in her father's farm in Rajasthan's Kotputli-Behror district.
On Saturday, a video of a wailing Dholi Devi surfaced in which she could be seen pleading with folded hands to rescue her daughter.
"It's been six days... My daughter is hungry and thirsty. What if the girl were collector madam's child? Would she let her be there for so long? Please get my daughter out as soon as possible," Dholi Devi pleaded.
Initially, the rescuers tried to pull out the girl using an iron ring attached to a rope, but all attempts failed.
After two days of repeated attempts that fetched no results, a piling machine was brought to the spot on Wednesday and a parallel pit was dug.
After rain interrupted the rescue operation on Friday, a two-member team entered the pit on Saturday to dig a tunnel.
"An attempt is being made to reach Chetna through an L-shaped tunnel by digging a parallel pit near the borewell. Two NDRF jawans who have descended into the pit are doing manual drilling. We are watching them on camera. The equipment they are demanding from below are being sent to them," District Collector Kalpana Agarwal told reporters.
Local SHO Sarund Mohammad Imran said, "All possible efforts are being made (to rescue the girl). NDRF and SDRF teams are working continuously. Unfortunately, rain interrupted the rescue operation on Friday." However, with each passing moment, the hopes to save the toddler is diminishing as the rescue team has been unable to supply food or water to Chetna.
A team of doctors with an ambulance is stationed at the spot.
Two weeks ago, a five-year-old boy fell into a borewell in Dausa district where the rescue operation lasted for more than 55 hours. However, the boy lost the battle for life by the time he was taken out.
VIDEO | Rajasthan: Here's what Kotputli DC Kalpana Agarwal said on rescue operation for three-year-old girl who fell in a borewell on December 23.
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) December 28, 2024
"A well has been dug using piling machine. We were planning to use the well and dug a horizontal tunnel to reach to the girl. Two… pic.twitter.com/XjeqFRNrAk
VIDEO | Rajasthan: "I appeal to the government to rescue my girl... I only want this," says Dholi Devi, mother of the three-year-old girl who fell into a borewell while playing in his father's farm in the Sarund area of Kotputli-Behror district.#RajasthanNews
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) December 24, 2024
(Full video… pic.twitter.com/XJhEbwsCr5
