crash

SpaceX’s Starship prototype just crashed, watch the explosion right here

February 2nd, 2021

Mike Wehner

SpaceX launched another test flight of a Starship prototype today. The high-altitude launch lasted roughly six minutes, but it didn’t end how SpaceX would have liked. Rather than landing, the spacecraft slammed into the landing area, creating a massive explosion. SpaceX’s latest Starship prototype launched on a test flight today, and it definitely ended with …

Science

Robotic race car does exactly what race cars aren’t supposed to do

October 29th, 2020

Mike Wehner

Roborace is a fledgling motorsports series using autonomous racecars, and its beta season is currently being carried out. One of the cars spontaneously decided to drive into a wall from a standstill. It’s unclear why the car crashed, but since it had no human driver, nobody was injured. The robot apocalypse is coming… eventually. Well, …

Science

Can you spot India’s crashed Moon lander? Because NASA sure can’t

September 27th, 2019

Mike Wehner

Earlier this month India was poised to make history. The Indian Space Research Organization eagerly awaited the day when its Chandrayaan-2 mission would send the Vikram lander and its rover companion down to the Moon’s surface. When that moment finally came, something went terribly wrong, and the lander is presumed destroyed. In the days and …

Science

NASA couldn’t find India’s crashed Moon lander, and hope is fading fast

September 19th, 2019

Mike Wehner

It’s now been nearly two full weeks since India’s lunar lander, Chandrayaan-2, went quiet moments before what was supposed to be a soft landing on the Moon. Rather than gracefully gliding to a halt, the spacecraft crashed, and its handlers back on Earth haven’t been able to establish contact since. Last week, NASA said it …

Science

Jessi Combs, speed champion and former Mythbuster, killed while attempting record-breaking jet car run

August 29th, 2019

Mike Wehner

Jessi Combs, the current women’s record-holder for fastest speed in a 4-wheeled vehicle, was killed in a jet car crash while attempting to best her own speed record. The crash occurred during a run in the Alvord Desert in Oregon, a dry lake bed favored for its flat terrain. She was 39 years old. Her …

Science

Nobody wants to fly on the disastrous 737 Max, even if Boeing fixes it

June 5th, 2019

Mike Wehner

Earlier this year, a Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed in Ethiopia, claiming the lives of all 157 people on board. The crash was the second tragic loss of a 737 Max 8 full of passengers within several months, leading aviation authorities to ground the planes until the company and safety officials could determine what went …

Science

SpaceIL’s first lander crashed into the Moon, but they’re already planning a second try

April 15th, 2019

Mike Wehner

It’s been a very interesting month thus far for SpaceIL, the Israeli organization which sent the Beresheet lunar lander into space and subsequently crashed it into the Moon. Needless to say, things didn’t go exactly as planned, and while the mission was a huge success in a number of ways the company would love another …

Science

We now know why Israel’s lunar lander crashed into the Moon

April 12th, 2019

Mike Wehner

Yesterday, Israel’s first mission to the Moon ended in a rather abrupt and unsatisfying manner. SpaceIL’s Beresheet lunar lander, which was part of a privately-funded mission that would have made Israel the fourth country to successfully land on the Moon, faltered at the very last second. In the immediate aftermath of the lander’s crash it …

Science

Oops! Israel’s Beresheet lander crashed into the Moon

April 11th, 2019

Mike Wehner

There were only two ways the first-ever Moon landing for Israel was going to go. The country’s Beresheet lander was definitely going to make it to the lunar surface, and it would either perform a successful soft landing or, well, crash. Unfortunately, it was the latter. As everyone saw during the livestream of the landing …

Science

Pilots of doomed Boeing 737 MAX fought the plane’s software and lost

April 4th, 2019

Mike Wehner

New details into the horrific crash of a Boeing 737 MAX commercial airliner reveal just how messed up the plane’s flight control software really was when it brought the plane crashing down in early March. A preliminary look at the crash report for Ethiopia Airlines flight 302, obtained by CNN, suggests that the pilots of …