Image: SpaceX
Yesterday’s test flight follows an immensely successful test last month where the launch tower caught the booster mid-air.
In a half successful attempt, SpaceX’s Starship rocket reignited one of its engines in space before descent, meanwhile on Earth, the rocket’s launch tower failed to catch the booster mid-air.
Last night (19 November) at around 10pm GMT, SpaceX’s Starship rocket took off from the company’s Starbase site in Texas for its sixth test flight.
The 121m tall Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket booster – capable of carrying up to 150 metric tonnes – successfully launched with all 33 of the booster’s Raptor engines powering the two-tiered machine.
However, after propelling the craft into space, automated health checks of the critical hardware on the 122-metre ‘Mechazilla’ launch and catch tower triggered the catch attempt of the rocket booster to abort. The booster, instead, executed a pre-planned divert manoeuver and splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico.
Meanwhile, the Starship rocket, the Starship’s top half, successfully reignited a Raptor engine in space for the first time, making re-entry through the atmosphere and landing back in the Indian Ocean – despite a rough landing trajectory.
“Turns out the vehicle had more capability than our calculations predicted, and that is why we test like we fly,” SpaceX engineer Kate Tice said on the event’s livestream.
In what was nearly a two-hour test flight, US president-elect Donald Trump was in attendance along with SpaceX owner Elon Musk.
The company, in a statement yesterday said that the flight provided “invaluable” feedback as the company aims for “eventual ship return and catch”.
With the ambitious aim to put people on the moon as early as 2026, NASA and SpaceX plan to use the Starship spacecraft to ferry astronauts to the moon’s surface.
“Starship’s sixth flight test once again delivered,” the company said. “Lessons learned will directly make the entire Starship system more reliable as we close in on full and rapid reusability.”
Congratulating SpaceX on the test flight yesterday, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson posted to X, saying, “Exciting to see the Raptor engine restart in space – major progress towards orbital flight.
“Together, we will return humanity to the moon and set our sights on Mars.”
Space X’s half successful flight test yesterday comes after some positive and several failed attempts over the years.
In a huge leap forward for space technology, Starship’s launch tower, in a successful fifth test flight last month, caught the booster mid-air.
In June, on its fourth attempt, the Starship rocket completed a full flight test for the first time without blowing up, while in its previous attempt, the rocket reached space for the first time, but exploded during re-entry.
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.
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