SpaceX Carries Out Mostly Successful Starship Test Flight
United States: SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft crashed into the Indian Ocean on Friday after a mostly successful test flight of the company’s latest version of its massive rocket.
There were a few hiccups on the trip, but SpaceX employees shown on the livestream roared with joy after the test flight, which took place as the Elon Musk-owned firm prepares for a potentially record initial public offering.
The massive rocket was launched into space just after 17:30 local time (2230 GMT).
The company had no intention of salvaging the booster or the upper stage, and the final jump was fiery but controlled, as planned.
“Splash confirmed!” wrote to company X.
SpaceX primarily intended to show off their redesign in flight.
The third-generation Starship spacecraft performed a maneuver that allowed it to return to an upright position and restart its engines for inspection, although one was out of service.
It also deployed 22 dummy satellites, including two that attempted to photograph the spacecraft’s heat shield for analysis.
The vehicle moved through space but was not in exactly the correct orbit due to one of its engines failing during the initial burn.
“I wouldn’t call it nominal orbital docking,” company spokesman Dan Huot said, adding that it was “within the bounds” of a previously analyzed orbit.
After the Super Heavy booster separated from the upper stage as expected, Huot said on live broadcast that the booster failed to complete the so-called rebound burn.
The booster crashed uncontrollably into the Gulf of Mexico, falling back to Earth. SpaceX wasn’t planning to retrieve the booster anyway, but still hoped for a definitive return.
Musk applauded his team at X and called the flight “epic.”
“You scored a goal for humanity,” he said.
– ‘There is still a long way to go’ –
Friday’s flight followed a trial that was canceled the day before.
The countdown clock was stopped and started until it was determined that last-minute red flags could not be addressed in time.
Musk quickly informed X that “the hydraulic pin holding the tower arm in place did not retract.” SpaceX said this issue was fixed overnight.
The company faced extra scrutiny after SpaceX filed with U.S. financial regulators earlier this week for what is expected to be a record IPO for it to go public, possibly in June.
Friday marks Starship’s 12th flight overall, but its first in seven months.
The latest design is larger than the previous model, measuring just over 124 meters long when fully stacked.
There’s a lot riding on SpaceX moving forward: The company has a contract with NASA to produce a modified version of Starship that will serve as a lunar landing system.
The US space agency’s Artemis program aims to return humans to the Moon, while China is moving forward with a rival effort targeting 2030 for its first crewed mission.
Clayton Swope, an aerospace expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told AFP that “the upgraded version of Starship does most of the things SpaceX was hoping to do at launch.”
However, he noted that a significant amount of time has passed since the last test flight.
NASA aims to test an in-orbit rendezvous between the spacecraft and at least one lunar lander in 2027; Both SpaceX and rival Blue Origin (the company owned by Jeff Bezos) are racing to develop it.
This Artemis phase represents a step towards achieving a human Moon landing before the end of 2028 and the end of Donald Trump’s presidency.
But for Swope, “There’s a long way to go and many more test flights before Starship is ready for the next Artemis mission.”
Ahead of Friday’s test, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman attended SpaceX’s pre-launch program and said: “We’re looking forward to seeing this fly, because we hope to join it in Earth orbit at some point in the not-too-distant future.”
After the test, Isaacman heaped praise on the X and congratulated SpaceX on “an amazing V3 Starship launch.”
“One step closer to the Moon… One step closer to Mars,” the NASA official said.
