The Starship rocket prior to lift off. Image: SpaceX
SpaceX’s Starship managed to cruise in low orbit for its third test launch before exploding, while the company expressed excitement for the next test.
SpaceX continues to test its ambitious Starship rocket, as a third test launch today (14 March) saw it reach space for the first time ever – before exploding upon re-entry.
The massive rocket cleared its launch pad earlier today and successfully separated from the Super Heavy Booster module, before entering a “coasting” period in space. The test marked a significant improvement over the two previous test launches.
Starship looked set to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere at intense speeds after reaching a “near-orbital velocity”. But the company confirmed in a livestream of the test launch that it lost contact with the spacecraft.
While the company is still determining the cause of the explosion, the team members claimed that the test was a success and that they hit a “number of important test objectives”. SpaceX communications manager Daniel Huot said it was “incredible to see how much further we got this time around”.
“There’s a lot to go through, everyone wants to know right off the bat what happened, takes us a little bit of time.” Huot said. “But I can assure you as soon as we start finding things out we’re going to let everybody know. And I know everybody is going to be excited for the next one.”
Huot said there were multiple super heavy boosters getting stacked behind him on the livestream and that the company has other ships “ready to go” to continue testing. The company also celebrated its 22nd anniversary today.
Explosive test results
Starship is SpaceX’s fully reusable transport system, which aims to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the moon, Mars and beyond. SpaceX aims to make Starship the most powerful launch vehicle ever created and is working with NASA to support the Artemis missions with this vehicle.
But the spacecraft has had multiple setbacks in its development journey, with various highs and lows for the Elon Musk-founded company. Starship had its first successful launch and landing in August 2020, but this was followed by the SN8 prototype exploding during a test run in December of the same year.
When launched for its first test in April 2023, Starship exploded minutes after taking off, which SpaceX politely referred to as a “rapid unscheduled disassembly”. The second test launch saw Starship successfully conduct its “hot-stage separation” technique for the first time, before exploding in a second “rapid unscheduled disassembly”.
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