SpaceX successfully launches Starship in third flight test
The third Starship test flight has fared far better than SpaceX’s previous two attempts. | Image: SpaceXSpaceX’s massive Starship took off from the company’s Starbase launch facility in Boca Chica, Texas, at 9:25AM ET on Thursday morning. This test...
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SpaceX’s massive Starship took off from the company’s Starbase launch facility in Boca Chica, Texas, at 9:25AM ET on Thursday morning. This test launch was more successful than its two predecessors, having completed several planned maneuvers and remained in one piece until contact with the Starship spacecraft was lost shortly before its anticipated splashdown in the Indian Ocean.
It completed the hot-staging separation from its Super Heavy booster and opened a payload door intended to demonstrate how it could be used for missions like delivering Starlink satellites into orbit. The Starship skipped a planned attempt to relight its Raptor engines in space and was scheduled to splash down in the Indian Ocean about an hour after takeoff.
Before the broadcast ended, commentators said, “We may have lost Starship,” after losing communication with the spacecraft. “We haven’t heard from the ship up until this point and so the team has made the call that Ship has been lost. So, no splashdown today,” said SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot.
SpaceX’s broadcast of the flight test ended about an hour after takeoff, with the last feeds from Starship showing what the external cameras saw during reentry.
This was SpaceX’s third attempt to test the Starship rocket, with the first on April 20th of last year bursting into flames around four minutes after launch. Its second attempt on November 18th fared better — while the Super Heavy booster also exploded after separation, the Starship spacecraft continued its journey into orbit, where SpaceX believes it self-destructed after contact with the vehicle was lost.
Today’s Starship test was given the green light by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Wednesday, less than 24 hours before its scheduled launch time, having determined that SpaceX had “met all safety, environmental, policy and financial responsibility requirements.” According to Space.com, the FAA had required SpaceX to complete 17 corrective actions concerning things like vehicle hardware redesigns, flammability analysis updates, and the installation of additional fire protection following an investigation into the second failed Starship test — far fewer than the 63 corrective actions identified during the first test.
