Elon Musk’s Starship goes ‘farther than ever’
SpaceX, an American company, witnessed significant advancements in its Starship rocket during its third test flight on Thursday, successfully achieving many of its objectives.
The two-stage spacecraft flawlessly departed from its launch site in Texas, propelling its upper section on a trajectory around the globe and ultimately re-entering over the Indian Ocean.
While radio communication was lost towards the mission’s conclusion, the company expressed satisfaction, describing the progress made as remarkable.
Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, also expressed his delight with the flight’s outcome, emphasizing Starship’s potential to lead humanity to Mars in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
During previous launches in April and November of the preceding year, the 120-meter-tall (395-foot) vehicle suffered catastrophic failures early in the missions. However, this time, Musk anticipated significant improvements from the SpaceX team, which were duly realized.
The rocket roared away from its launch pad, powered by 33 engines, and flawlessly transitioned through all expected stages of ascent into space.
At two minutes and 44 seconds into the flight, the booster (the bottom half) separated from the Ship (the top half) precisely as planned.
The Ship continued its journey, traversing the Atlantic and southern Africa, while onboard video cameras provided stunning perspectives of Earth from an altitude exceeding 100 miles.
The critical re-entry phase ensued, requiring the Ship to descend for a splashdown in the ocean. Video footage captured breathtaking moments as the vehicle was enveloped in hot gases just before radio communication was lost.
Controllers reported shortly after that the Ship had been “lost”, presumably because it had broken up.
Not every milestone was ticked off. It was hoped the booster after separation might have been able to power its way back to a controlled drop into the sea just off the Texas coast. It got close but it looked as though the vehicle came in way too fast and hit the water very hard.
The Ship, too, was expected to re-ignite an engine to initiate the re-entry, but this was skipped for a reason not immediately apparent.
These are issues that can be re-visited once all the data is in hand. The upsum, however, is that engineers now know the development of the world’s most powerful rocket is firmly on track. And Elon Musk is promising perhaps six more test flights this year.
Starship is unlike any rocket system we’ve seen to date.
The 33 engines at the base of the booster produce 74 meganewtons of thrust. This dwarfs all previous vehicles, including those that sent men to the Moon in the 1960s/70s.
If engineers can perfect Starship, it will be revolutionary.
The rocket is intended to be fully and rapidly reusable, to operate much like an aeroplane that can be refuelled and put back in the air in quick order.
This capability, along with the heft to carry more than a hundred tonnes to orbit in one go, would radically lower the cost of space activity.
For Elon Musk, Starship is key to his Starlink project which is establishing a global network of broadband internet satellites. The current count in orbit is more than 5,500. The new rocket will be able to put up many more spacecraft for the network.
To that end, this test flight demonstrated the opening and closing of a payload bay door, through which future Starlink satellites could be dispensed.
And Starship will also help Mr Musk realise that long-held ambition of taking people and supplies to Red Planet to build a human settlement.
Among the keenest observers on Thursday will have been the US space agency.
Starship is central to Nasa’s Artemis programme to put astronauts back on the Moon this decade.
A version of Starship would act as the landing craft, taking the crew from lunar orbit down to the surface – and then lifting them back off again.
SpaceX will have to show it can produce a safe and reliable vehicle before astronauts are permitted to climb aboard. Nasa has scheduled late 2026 for when it would like to see this happen.
Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator, stated X: “Congrats to @SpaceX on a successful test flight! Starship has soared into the heavens. Together, we are making great strides through Artemis to return humanity to the Moon — then look onward to Mars.”
The Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial spaceflight in the US, immediately announced there would be a mishap investigation following the mission, given the way the booster and Ship ended their flights.
This is standard practice, and SpaceX will lead the inquiry into what it got right and what it got wrong. This, too, is standard practice.
