Yesterday, November 18, the second test flight of SpaceX’s new Starship mega-spacecraft took place, which ended in an explosion after the first stage separated.
Nevertheless, the company considers the trial a success.
The rocket, which is the largest ever built by mankind, was launched from its launch site in Boca Chica, Texas. This flight was particularly anticipated as it was the first time Starship had entered space. However, shortly after the first stage separation, the powerful Super Heavy booster exploded, and the upper stage of the Starship also detonated before reaching the planned altitude.
SpaceX engineer John Inspraker, during the live broadcast, noted that the reason could be the late activation of the automatic flight termination system on the second stage of the rocket.
The launch of Starship was accompanied by great public interest, especially around the launch site, where hundreds of people gathered to watch the launch.
This was the second test flight of the fully integrated Starship, which consists of the Super Heavy first stage and the Starship upper stage. The first flight, which took place on April 20 this year, also ended in an explosion. But, compared to the previous launch, where a lot of damage was done to both the launch pad and the area around it, yesterday’s flight can indeed be considered more successful, as both ships were destroyed.
This time, after igniting all the engines (33), the ship quickly gained altitude and did not seem to blow up the launch pad. The first stage, Super Heavy, did not lose a single engine, which is incredible with that many. Also, the engines shut down normally (and beautifully), and there was a wonderful separation of the ships. The problems began when Super Heavy was returned – obviously, at this stage everything went a little off track and Super Heavy effectively self-destructed.
To prevent a recurrence of problems with stage separation, this time SpaceX used a new “hot staging” strategy, when the upper stage engines are launched before the Starship is fully separated from the Super Heavy. This concept was previously used in rockets such as NASA’s Titan II and Russia’s Soyuz rocket.
The explosion occurred shortly after the separation of the degrees. SpaceX had planned to gently land the Super Heavy in the Gulf of Mexico to test re-entry and landing processes, but something went wrong. But that’s why self-destruction was invented, and it seems to have worked well.
The upper stage of the Starship continued to fly for a short time after the stages were separated. The mission’s goal was to reach an altitude of about 150 miles (250 kilometers), but communication with the vehicle was lost eight minutes after launch.
SpaceX has big plans for the Starship rocket, including missions to the Moon and Mars. For example, NASA has selected Starship as the lunar module for the Artemis 3 mission, scheduled for late 2025 or early 2026.
The main advantage of Starship is its complete and rapid reusability. The system has great potential for use in long-distance space missions.
SpaceX now intends to investigate the causes of the explosion and take measures to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.
The launch broadcast with Ukrainian-language commentary is available in the header to this video thanks to the Alpha Centauri community of space enthusiasts.
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We would also like to note some unique aspects of this Starship test flight:
- the launch was broadcast not on YouTube, as usual, but on the social network X (formerly Twitter). Elon Musk, in principle, has a tendency to attract resources from third (his) companies, especially if these companies are owned by him. Musk, for example, takes astronauts to the launch pad in Tesla cars on SpaceX Crew Dragon missions.
- The flight permit was obtained from the regulatory authorities quite quickly and incredibly predictably by Musk himself, who was confident that the permit would be granted.
- The launch table and the rocket itself have been extensively modernized after the previous test flight.
