SpaceX launches Starship on another test flight, this time with the most advanced Starlinks

SpaceX’s mammoth starship rocket On Friday, it set off on another test flight to the other side of the world, this time launching 20 of the most advanced Starlinks.

Rising 407 feet (124 meters), Starship soared from the company’s base at the southern tip of Texas. NASA monitored the Starship glide flight from space, a critical step toward its use as a vehicle. Lunar lander for lunar crew.

The hour-long journey ended with a splash so gentle that the spacecraft remained afloat in the Indian Ocean as SpaceX’s webcast ended, greeted with applause from employees at the launch site.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX replaced six of the 33 engines on the first stage booster last week after some failed to fire. last second startup cancellation. Previous Starship flight in May he also experienced engine trouble that prevented the booster from making a controlled rotation.

This time, all engines fired during takeoff, but not enough engines fired again for the booster to return, causing the booster to descend too quickly and crash into the Gulf of Mexico. The spacecraft continued to ascend eastward, launching Starlinks one by one 124 miles (200 kilometers) upward before reentering.

This was the 13th flight of the world’s largest and most powerful rocket and the second flight of its new version, called V3, this year. As in the previous demo, neither the thruster nor the spacecraft were intended to be recovered; instead it was necessary to dive into the sea.

The stainless steel, retro-looking spacecraft hovered upright over the Indian Ocean before landing on water, more than 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) from where the flight began.

According to SpaceX, this was the best reentry yet; The solid booster was just floating amidst a few flames. Previous flights ended with the spacecraft bursting into flames and exploding during splashdowns, or breaking apart in mid-air.

“We’re really excited about this,” said SpaceX engineer Kate Tice, calling it a “lucky 13th flight.”

The Starlinks completed all their work before re-entering the Indian Ocean.

After being expelled from the Starship’s Pez-like dispenser, the Starlinks had only 20 minutes to communicate via lasers and radio before going back inside. SpaceX said its engineers communicated and even downloaded data from each of them. SpaceX has the world’s largest satellite constellation, with more than 10,000 Starlinks currently providing internet.

Six of the newly launched Starlinks carried cameras that photographed the Starship’s heat shield at the end of the flight, broadcasting surprisingly clear images even as the spacecraft bobbed in the ocean. The heat shield is also equipped with sensors to measure the extreme pressure exerted on the spacecraft during launch. Most of the heat shield’s thermal tiles were black, but some were deliberately painted white to simulate missing tiles, as part of an experiment to test the shield’s durability.

“We got all the heat shield data we needed and then some!” Musk said the following about X.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman offered his congratulations. “I’m excited for what will be learned from this mission,” Isaacman said in X.

SpaceX wants to make sure Starship’s heat shield can withstand entry heat before trying to send it back to the Starbase launch pad near the Texas-Mexico border. The company has already used a pair of giant mechanical arms on the pad to capture a Starship booster. The company plans to do the same with real spacecraft, which are designed to be completely reusable.

NASA needs Starship to complete testing and reach orbit soon so the Artemis III astronauts (three Americans and one Italian) can practice docking their capsules on it next year.

Starship is also the vehicle with which Musk plans to build a city on Mars. He is already booking tourist trips to Mars as well as the Moon.

The latest test flight was first delayed due to a launch cancellation on July 16, then postponed again on Thursday due to thick clouds from Tropical Storm Bertha.

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