A view of the LaGuardia airport in New York. Photo used for representation purpose only.
| Photo Credit: AP

In this photo provided by Portland Fire & Rescue, firefighters use handlines to extinguish the fire adjacent to the primary structure involved after a small plane crashed in Fairview, Ore, on August 31, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Three people were dead after a small plane crashed into a row of townhouses on Saturday (August 31, 2024) morning in a neighbourhood east of Portland, setting the homes ablaze, authorities told KATU-TV.

Officials earlier in the day had said the plane was carrying two people and that at least one resident had been unaccounted for.

Photos and videos published by KGW-TV in Portland showed one of the townhomes engulfed in flames while black smoke poured out of the adjoining houses. Gresham Fire Chief Scott Lewis said the fire had spread to at least four of the homes, displacing up to six families. He said two people were treated at the scene, but he didn’t describe the type or severity of injuries.

The Federal Aviation Administration identified the aircraft as a twin-engine Cessna 421C, which it says went down around 10:30 am near Troutdale Airport, about a 30-minute drive east of Portland.

As the plane went down, it knocked over a pole and power lines, causing a separate brush fire in a nearby field, according to the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office. The plane was split into multiple parts as it crashed in the residential area in the city of Fairview, which is home to about 10,000 people.

Lewis said the first call about the fire came from staff at the Troutdale Airport’s control tower, who saw a thick plume of smoke rising in the air. But Lewis said that initial reports indicated “there was no mayday, no call for emergency” from the aircraft itself before it crashed.

The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation into the crash. The agency has sent two investigators to the site of the crash who will document the wreckage, spokesperson Peter Knudson said. He did not release further details about the crash.

The website for the Port of Portland, which oversees general aviation and marine operations in the Portland area, describes Troutdale Airport as a “flight training and recreational airport”.

This image created from a SpaceX video, shows the moment when the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket’s first-stage fell over in flames after landing on an ocean platform offshore, in the Atlantic Ocean on August 28, 2024.
| Photo Credit: SpaceX/AP

The SpaceX Falcon 9 vehicle may return to flight operations while the overall investigation of the anomaly during a recent Starlink mission remains open, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said on Friday (August 30, 2024).

SpaceX made the return to flight request for the workhorse vehicle on Thursday (August 29, 2024) and the FAA gave approval on Friday (August 30, 2024). The agency said flights may resume “provided all other license requirements are met.”

On Wednesday (August 28, 2024), the FAA grounded the Falcon 9 after failing an attempt to land back on Earth during a routine Starlink mission, forcing the company’s second grounding this year.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 successfully launched a batch of Starlink internet satellites into orbit early Wednesday (August 28, 2024) from Florida. The rocket’s reusable first stage booster returned to Earth and attempted to land on a sea-faring barge as usual, but toppled into the ocean after a fiery touchdown.

Groundings of Falcon 9, a rocket that much of the Western world relies on to put satellites and humans in space, are rare. The rocket was previously grounded in July for the first time since 2016, following a second-stage failure in space that doomed a batch of Starlink satellites.

After the July grounding, SpaceX returned Falcon 9 to flight 15 days later, after the FAA granted the company’s request for an expedited return to flight.

Falcon 9 is also due to launch two NASA astronauts in late September on a Crew Dragon spacecraft that will bring home next year the two astronauts who have been stuck on the International Space Station after riding Boeing’s troubled Starliner spacecraft.

SpaceX has built a sizable fleet of reusable Falcon boosters since the rocket’s first launch in 2010 that has allowed the company to vastly outpace its rivals in launch frequency.

Another Starlink mission was poised for launch shortly after Wednesday’s flight, from SpaceX’s other launch site in southern California, but the company called that mission off after the landing failure.

SpaceX’s mega rocket Starship launches at dawn in the haze on it’s third test flight from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, Thursday, March 14, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

SpaceX came close to completing an hour-long test flight of its mega rocket on its third try Thursday, but the spacecraft was lost as it descended back to Earth.

The company said it lost contact with Starship as it neared its goal, a splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The first-stage booster also ended up in pieces, breaking apart much earlier in the flight over the Gulf of Mexico after launching from the southern tip of Texas near the Mexican border.

“The ship has been lost. So no splashdown today,” said SpaceX’s Dan Huot. “But again, it’s incredible to see how much further we got this time around.”

Two test flights last year both ended in explosions minutes after liftoff. By surviving for close to 50 minutes this time, Thursday’s effort was considered a win by not only SpaceX’s Elon Musk, but NASA as well as Starship soared higher and farther than ever before. The space agency is counting on Starship to land its astronauts on the moon in another few years.

The nearly 121-meter Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, headed out over the Gulf of Mexico after liftoff Thursday morning, flying east. Spectators crowded the nearby beaches in South Padre Island and Mexico.

A few minutes later, the booster separated seamlessly from the spaceship, but broke apart 1,500 feet (462 meters) above the gulf, instead of plummeting into the water intact. By then, the spacecraft was well to the east and continuing upward, with no people or satellites on board.

Starship reached an altitude of about 233 km as it coasted across the Atlantic and South Africa, before approaching the Indian Ocean. But 49 minutes into the flight — with just 15 minutes remaining — all contact was lost and the spacecraft presumably broke apart.

At that point, it was 65 km high and traveling around 16,000 mph (25,700 kph).

SpaceX’s Elon Musk had just congratulated his team a little earlier. “SpaceX has come a long way,” he said via X, formerly called Twitter. The rocket company was founded exactly 22 years ago Thursday.

NASA greets SpaceX

NASA watched with keen interest: The space agency needs Starship to succeed in order to land astronauts on the moon in the next two or so years. This new crop of moonwalkers — the first since last century’s Apollo program — will descend to the lunar surface in a Starship after transferring from NASA’s Orion capsule in lunar orbit.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson quickly congratulated SpaceX on what he called a successful test flight as part of the space agency’s Artemis moon-landing program.

The stainless steel, bullet-shaped spacecraft launched atop a first-stage booster known as the Super Heavy. Both the booster and the spacecraft are designed to be reusable, although they were never meant to be salvaged Thursday.

On Starship’s inaugural launch last April, several of the booster’s 33 methane-fueled engines failed and the booster did not separate from the spacecraft, causing the entire vehicle to explode and crash into the gulf four minutes after liftoff.

SpaceX managed to double the length of the flight during November’s trial run. While all 33 engines fired and the booster peeled away as planned, the flight ended in a pair of explosions, first the booster and then the spacecraft.

The Federal Aviation Administration reviewed all the corrections made to Starship, before signing off on Thursday’s launch. The FAA said after the flight that it would again investigate what happened. As during the second flight, all 33 booster engines performed well during ascent, according to SpaceX.

Initially, SpaceX plans to use the mammoth rockets to launch the company’s Starlink internet satellites, as well as other spacecraft. Test pilots would follow to orbit, before the company flies wealthy clients around the moon and back. Musk considers the moon a stepping stone to Mars, his ultimate quest.

NASA is insisting that an empty Starship land successfully on the moon, before future moonwalkers climb aboard. The space agency is targeting the end of 2026 for the first moon landing crew under the Artemis program, named after the mythological twin sister of Apollo.