Ninth Starship test flight for SpaceX following blown up predecessors
SpaceX's Starship, a key vessel in Elon Musk's multiplanetary travel aspirations, took off on its ninth uncrewed test flight from Texas on Tuesday. The two-stage spacecraft, comprising the Starship vehicle atop the SpaceX Super Heavy rocket booster, soared into the sky at around 7:36 p.m. EDT (2336 GMT) from the Starbase launch site on the Gulf Coast.
The launch marked a new milestone as SpaceX used a previously flown Super Heavy booster for the first time, aiming to demonstrate the system's reusability. Starship successfully ascended to space, reaching a suborbital trajectory about nine minutes into the mission. However, the Booster B14-2 was lost during its descent over the Gulf of Mexico, failing to make the controlled splashdown SpaceX had planned.
Contact with the booster was lost before its presumed impact with the sea. On the other hand, the upper-stage Starship vehicle continued its journey, but encountered an issue during re-entry over the Indian Ocean. Fuel leakage led to a loss of attitude control, preventing the controlled descent and splashdown as intended.
One test-flight mishap occurred with Starship's payload bay door that refused to open, failing to release a group of simulated satellites. Additionally, the Raptor engine relight test for orbital maneuvering was not confirmed as successful.
Despite the losses, SpaceX continues to push the boundaries of space exploration, building towards their ultimate goal of establishing a multiplanetary civilization. The next steps will likely focus on rectifying the issues encountered and moving closer to achieving controlled re-entries and recoveries for both the booster and the Starship.
- The SpaceX team aims to rectify the issue with Starship's payload bay door, a crucial component for the release of simulated satellites in line with future space-and-astronomy missions.
- As technology advancements in space-and-astronomy continue, SpaceX seeks to address the Raptor engine relight test failure for orbital maneuvering, a key aspect required for successful multiplanetary travel.
