A SpaceX rocket, which aims to return humans to the moon and one day to Mars, completed its third and most successful test flight Thursday morning.
The Starship rocket, stacked atop a very heavy booster, launched flawlessly at 6:25 a.m. PDT from the company's launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas, with all 33 booster engines igniting and propelling Starship into space.
Less than three minutes later, the booster successfully separated from the rocket in what Elon Musk's company calls a “hot phase” sequence, meaning the spacecraft's engines lit up moments before separation. The maneuver aims to improve the missile's payload.
The spacecraft then entered the “coast phase”, sailing through space for several minutes before reentering Earth's atmosphere toward a planned landing in the Indian Ocean. The company eventually lost contact with the vehicle, and about 65 minutes into the flight, it said the rocket was lost.
The company described the third flight as successful, noting that it was the longest flight of the missile to date.
During the flight, the spacecraft completed several objectives, including opening and closing the payload doors that will be used to launch future satellites. It also issued orders to transfer tons of propellant from one tank to another. The company will review the data to determine whether the transfer has occurred.
“The spacecraft will make life multi-planetary,” Musk tweeted after the test flight ended.
Two previous launches of earlier versions of Starship ended in explosions shortly after launch, but they provided scientists with valuable information about its rocket system, which is the most powerful spacecraft ever built. SpaceX received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday to conduct the latest flight.
Like the company's Falcon rockets, both the Starship and Super Heavy rockets are designed to return to Earth and are reusable, which Musk said would significantly reduce the cost of space travel. SpaceX had hoped Thursday to return the rocket to the Gulf of Mexico in a controlled reentry, but was unable to do so.
The spacecraft is key to the company's financial security. The spaceship and its attached Super Heavy booster are intended to eventually replace the company's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket. Its purpose is not only to transport cargo and crew to the lunar surface, but to launch more and larger Starlink broadband satellites from the company's current rocket lineup.
Last April, the company launched a Starship rocket for the first time. The missile was able to evacuate the launch pad located in the southern tip of Texas near the Mexican border, and flew over the Gulf of Mexico for a few minutes before exploding.
SpaceX later said the propellant leak caused several engines to fail, and the explosion was caused by the rocket's autonomous flight termination system, which is designed to cause the rocket to self-destruct if the software senses it is going off course or its performance has changed. Unsafe.
The launch pad was also damaged during the explosion, sending debris flying across nearly 400 acres.
SpaceX's second test flight in November took about twice as long, giving the vehicle time to separate from the spacecraft. The booster exploded moments after falling, and the spacecraft followed shortly after. This explosion was also due to the missile's autonomous flight termination system.
Starship, with its super-heavy booster, is the largest and most powerful rocket ever developed, longer than the Saturn V rocket that sent Neil Armstrong to the moon and with nearly twice as much thrust. If the company completes its mission to the moon, Musk will be a small step closer to his goal of eventually transporting humans to Mars. The company already has a contract with NASA to transport people to the moon.
The aerospace company, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., does not typically view in-flight failures during rocket development as major setbacks, but instead as learning moments that help develop its vehicles further.
Regardless of the outcome of the latest mission, SpaceX still has a long way to go until people can take trips to Mars. These include figuring out life support systems and how to land the spacecraft in one piece.
Bloomberg News contributed to this report.
