{"id":49314,"date":"2023-04-21T12:17:20","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T12:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2023\/04\/21\/a-spacex-rocket-exploded-heres-why-the-space-force-remains-hopeful\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T18:32:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:32:29","slug":"a-spacex-rocket-exploded-heres-why-the-space-force-remains-hopeful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/space\/2023\/04\/21\/a-spacex-rocket-exploded-heres-why-the-space-force-remains-hopeful\/","title":{"rendered":"A SpaceX rocket exploded. Here\u2019s why the Space Force remains hopeful."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. \u2014 SpaceX\u2019s Starship launch vehicle, the world\u2019s heaviest rocket, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c4isrnet.com\/battlefield-tech\/space\/2023\/03\/09\/spacex-mission-may-herald-era-of-low-cost-reliable-space-transport\/\" target=\"_blank\">could be a game changer for the Space Force<\/a>, even after its first attempt at a suborbital flight on April 20 ended in an explosion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.c4isrnet.com\/govcon\/2023\/04\/20\/spacex-giant-rocket-explodes-minutes-after-launch-from-texas\/\" target=\"_blank\">Despite the failure<\/a>, service officials told C4ISRNET they\u2019re hopeful about the rocket\u2019s future and what the test flight means for the launch industry more broadly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Col. Jim Horne, deputy director of operations for the Space Force\u2019s Assured Access to Space directorate said when innovators like SpaceX, which is owned by billionaire Elon Musk, attempt groundbreaking technological advances, even an unsuccessful test is a chance to learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think that\u2019s one of my favorite things that companies like them have done is teach us that we need to learn from our mistakes and not fear them,\u201d he said during an April 20 interview at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo. \u201cTake acceptable risk, learn from it and move on. They\u2019ve proven that you can accelerate innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Col. Mark Shoemaker, vice commander for operations at Space Launch Delta 45 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, said he views SpaceX\u2019s Starship launch as an accomplishment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey will say they were successful, and I would agree,\u201d he said in the same interview. \u201cI\u2019m sure they learned a lot from that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SpaceX planned for Starship, a 400-foot-fall rocket that can carry 150 tons to orbit, to fly to a suborbital altitude of 235 km above Earth in its debut mission. Four minutes into the flight, it began to tumble in the air after several of its engines failed. The Washington Post, citing a statement from the Federal Aviation Administration, reported that Starship\u2019s Automated Flight Termination System, designed to disable a rocket that malfunctions in flight, destroyed the launch vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Defense Department has been closely watching SpaceX\u2019s work on Starship as it considers a future requirement for rapid cargo delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2020, U.S. Transportation Command signed a cooperative research and development agreement with the company to gain insight into the rocket\u2019s development. Two years later, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c4isrnet.com\/2022\/01\/20\/afrl-partners-with-spacex-to-explore-rocket-cargo-potential\/\" target=\"_blank\">Air Force Research Laboratory awarded SpaceX more than $100 million<\/a> to provide flight data from Starship launch attempts to support its Rocket Cargo effort, which is studying the feasibility of using rockets to carry personnel and cargo around the globe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whether SpaceX\u2019s unsuccessful attempt will impact the Space Force\u2019s goal to operationalize a Rocket Cargo capability by 2026 is unclear and will likely depend on the cause of the failure and how quickly the company recovers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SpaceX has two more Starships on hand but hasn\u2019t indicated when it will attempt another launch. John Insprucker, an engineer for the company, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spacex.com\/launches\/mission\/?missionId=starship-flight-test\" target=\"_blank\">said during its live webcast<\/a> that the flight achieved its objective to provide data the company can learn from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt is the first test flight of Starship, and the goal was to gather the data,\u201d he said, adding that after the dust settles, SpaceX intends to \u201cclear the pad and get ready to go again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rockets like Starship could have significant implications for how the Space Force and commercial industry transport cargo and people around the globe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":112031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":23,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[160,29,33,36,23,102],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3468],"class_list":["post-49314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-digital-show-dailies","category-home","category-newsletters","category-space","category-space-symposium"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"GBNSJKMIEBHQPBUXQMKDWL6ZVI","arc_canonical_url":"\/battlefield-tech\/space\/2023\/04\/21\/a-spacex-rocket-exploded-heres-why-the-space-force-remains-hopeful\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A SpaceX rocket exploded. 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