SpaceX fails to complete its 3rd test flight of mega rocket
SpaceX came close to completing an hourlong test flight of its mega rocket Thursday on its third try, but the spacecraft was lost as it descended back to Earth.
The company said it lost contact with Starship as it neared its goal, a splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The first-stage booster also ended up in pieces, breaking apart much earlier in the flight over the Gulf of Mexico after launching from the southern tip of Texas.
“The ship has been lost. So no splashdown today,” said SpaceX’s Dan Huot. “But again, it’s incredible to see how much further we got this time around.”
Two test flights last year ended in explosions minutes after liftoff. By surviving for close to 50 minutes this time, Thursday’s effort was considered a win by not only SpaceX CEO Elon Musk but also NASA, as Starship soared higher and farther than ever before. The space agency is counting on Starship to land its astronauts on the moon in a few years.
The nearly 400-foot Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, headed out over the Gulf of Mexico after liftoff Thursday morning, flying east. Spectators crowded the nearby beaches in South Padre Island and nearby Mexico.
A few minutes later, the booster separated seamlessly from the spaceship but broke apart 1,500 feet above the Gulf, instead of plummeting into the water intact. By then, the spacecraft was well to the east and continuing upward, with no people or satellites on board.
Starship reached an altitude of about 145 miles as it coasted across the Atlantic and South Africa, before approaching the Indian Ocean. But 49 minutes into the flight — with just 15 minutes remaining — all contact was lost and the spacecraft presumably broke apart.
At that point, it was 40 miles high and traveling around 16,000 mph.
Musk had just congratulated his team a little earlier. “SpaceX has come a long way,” he said via X, formerly
Twitter.
The rocket company was founded exactly 22 years ago Thursday.
NASA watched with keen interest: It needs Starship to succeed in order to land astronauts on the moon in the next two or so years. This new crop of moonwalkers — the first since last century’s Apollo program — will descend to the lunar surface in a Starship craft after transferring from NASA’s Orion capsule in lunar orbit.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson quickly congratulated SpaceX on what he called a successful test flight as part of the space agency’s Artemis moon-landing program.
The stainless steel, bullet-shaped spacecraft launched atop a first-stage booster known as the Super Heavy. The booster and the spacecraft are designed to be reusable, although they were never meant to be salvaged in Thursday’s test.
NASA is insisting that an empty Starship land successfully on the moon before it carries astronauts. NASA is targeting the end of 2026 for the first moon landing crew.