SpaceX actually broke the atmosphere, something never been seen before in history, says researcher

A November 2023 rocket failure from Elon Musk’s SpaceX actually broke the atmosphere.

For the first time in mankind’s history, a hole was blown in the ionosphere following the catastrophic failure of the company’s Starship rocket. The booster successfully disconnected from Starship but exploded minutes later, with the rocket itself detonating shortly after, about 93 miles above the Earth’s surface. This explosion was intense enough to actually disrupt the ionosphere, something that has never been seen before in the history of space travel.

Yury Yasyukevich is the lead researcher and ionosphere physicist at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics. He explained that the ionosphere does suffer some disruption as humans exit and enter the atmosphere, but such a hole has never been recorded as the result of a rocket’s catastrophic failure.

“Usually, such holes form due to chemical reactions from engine fuel,” he said. “But this time, it was caused by the sheer shock wave from the Starship explosion.”

The ionosphere self-repaired after about 30-40 minutes, and according to analysis from Yasyukevich’s team, the hole was due to the shockwave from the detonation scattering the free electrons, which resulted in a disruption to the plasma that primarily forms the Earth’s atmosphere.

“Analyzing the data and understanding their nature, we understand more deeply the structure of the ionosphere, [and] the nature of the phenomena that occur in it,” the scientist told a local Russian media station.

“The rocket met a similar fate during its first test flight in April 2023. That time, Starship was given a self-destruct code when it entered into an uncontrolled spin about four minutes after lifting off,” Daily Mail reported. “It was only 18 miles above ground when it blew and rained chunks of debris down over Boca Chica, prompting a federal investigation and a lawsuit from environmental groups.”

Writer/Columnist

Sierra Marlee is a millennial whose hunger for the truth in a world of fake news has led her to BizPac Review.

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