An explosive success
SpaceX’s powerful rocket makes long-awaited launch before bursting into flames
SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — SpaceX launched the world’s most powerful rocket Thursday morning from South Texas. Its engines flashed through the fog, and the rocket slowly climbed 24 miles into the sky — before exploding about four minutes after liftoff.
The Super Heavy rocket made history as it powered upward. But then it failed to separate from the Starship spacecraft, and they began to spin above the Gulf of Mexico before erupting into a big fireball. It was still a successful mission for SpaceX, which with NASA has huge ambitions for this supersized rocket that could push deeper into space and open new avenues for reaching Earth’s orbit.
The company’s founder, Elon Musk, previously said the goal Thursday was to clear the launch pad, as that would take months to rebuild if it were destroyed by the rocket’s 33 engines (a SpaceX live video suggested three engines weren’t firing several seconds after liftoff ). Anything else would be a success.
SpaceX has a fast-paced iterative development style of test, fail, fix and test again. Data from this flight test will be used to adjust the rocket and fly again. The next launch could be in a few months, Musk said on Twitter.
“As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced rapid unscheduled disassembly,” SpaceX said on Twitter.
Rapid unscheduled disassembly, RUD, is space lingo for an explosion. The flight, which did not have people onboard, was terminated so the rocket didn’t fly dangerously off course. The company said it will work with local authorities to recover the rocket’s remains. Some images are showing significant damage to the launch
facility, too.
Thursday’s launch was the second try for this rocket in Boca Chica, outside of Brownsville. The first attempt Monday was scrubbed due to a frozen valve.
Crowds on the southernmost tip of South Padre Island, roughly 5 miles from the launch pad, cheered as the rocket flamed to life at 8:33 a.m. They held their breath as it appeared to linger on the launch pad for a few seconds, only to cheer again as it started to climb and the engines could be heard and felt.
“It was incredible. It was shockingly loud, too,” said Chris Marshall, who traveled from Portland, Maine, with his girlfriend Joelle LaFreniere. It was their first rocket launch.
“It was the right one to go to,” LaFreniere said.
Even more people watched from live video provided by SpaceX and the legion of YouTubers who document the company’s progress.
Space enthusiasts wanted to see the rocket’s revolutionary technology and sleek design. Entrepreneurs were intrigued by the potential for a dramatically cheaper ride into orbit. NASA was seeking an update on the Starship spacecraft that’s supposed to lower its astronauts to the moon.
But not everyone was watching with the high hopes promised by a 4/20 liftoff. Environmentalists were wary of the damage that could be created as Starship took flight near a wildlife refuge and state park known for bird-watching.
Twice Saturn V’s power
Thursday was the company’s first South Texas launch in nearly two years. And it was by far the most ambitious.
The Super Heavy rocket’s 33 engines are capable of generating between 16 million and 17 million pounds of thrust. That’s twice as powerful as the Saturn V rocket that sent Apollo astronauts to the moon with 7.6 million pounds of thrust.
The Super Heavy liftoff was similar to Saturn V’s in the sense that both rockets ambled from the launch pad with a sense of authority, said Phil Smith, a space industry analyst at BryceTech.
“What I loved about it, just aesthetically, is it gave this greater sense of power,” Smith said. “It’s this massive thing that conveys the feeling of, ‘I’ll get there when I’m ready to get there.’ There’s a majesty to that.”
No other rocket has attempted to launch 33 engines together in a single stage. A Soviet Union rocket, the N1, tried to launch with 30 engines, but each of its four launches failed within seconds of liftoff.
Super Heavy did better than the N1, but it still needs some work. On top of the three engines that weren’t firing seconds after liftoff, the rocket had a few additional engines turn off before the flight was terminated.
SpaceX said a flight termination system was used on both Super Heavy and Starship to blow them up. Most rockets have these systems in case something goes awry and the flight needs to be terminated to protect public safety.
Smith said he considers the mission “a great success” because Super Heavy survived the full 2 minutes and 49 seconds that its engines were supposed to be ignited.
He said operations become more complex when Super Heavy separates from Starship, which proved true Thursday.
Super Heavy was supposed to separate from Starship and land in the Gulf of Mexico; Starship was supposed to ignite six engines and then continue traveling around the planet, almost making a complete lap before landing off the coast of Hawaii.
Eventually, both these vehicles are designed to land in an upright, vertical position. The Boca Chica launch tower has giant robotic arms that would help catch Super Heavy.
Another step toward Mars
More South Texas launches are expected as SpaceX continues developing the Super Heavy rocket and Starship.
SpaceX has built a Starship launch tower in Florida, but its rocket needs to be more reliable (meaning it’s less likely to explode and cause damage) before flying from Cape Canaveral, an area that supports more launches. Boca Chica, which Musk calls Starbase, is the company’s test bed.
“We want to kind of get past the developmental stage here at Starbase before we launch out of the Cape,” Musk said Sunday during a conversation on Twitter Spaces.
For exploration, Starship is expected to help NASA astronauts land on the moon — NASA’s Orion spacecraft can’t land on the moon, so its astronauts will transfer to Starship to reach the lunar surface — and will help SpaceX carry humanity to Mars.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson congratulated SpaceX on Thursday. “Every great achievement throughout history has demanded some level of calculated risk, because with great risk comes great reward,” he said on Twitter. “Looking forward to all that SpaceX learns, to the next flight test—and beyond.”
For the commercial sector, the Super Heavy rocket and Starship spacecraft could dramatically reduce the cost of accessing microgravity.
A more accessible space
SpaceX is already credited with bringing down launch costs. Its Falcon 9 rocket, which launches up to 60 times a year, has reduced the price to between $2,500 and $3,000 per kilogram of cargo, Smith said. This rocket can launch 25 tons to low-Earth orbit.
Shipping one kilogram on the fully reusable Starship, which can launch 100 to 150 tons, could cost less than $1,000, Smith said.
Is there enough demand for a rocket this big? Not yet, space analysts said, but they expect businesses will find new, innovative uses for this cheaper rocket once it’s reliable. And in the meantime, SpaceX will use Starship to launch the satellites for its Starlink broadband internet service.
“That solves the early question of, ‘Well, what the hell are you going to put inside this rocket?’ “said Brendan Rosseau, a teaching fellow and research associate focused on the economics of space at Harvard Business School. “You’ll see more and more people designing satellites specifically for Starship. It’s a different kind of vehicle, and you can think about and design satellites a little bit differently.”
Rosseau agreed Starship will bring down the cost of accessing space, but he said it might not be as dramatic as some are expecting. Because Starship will do work that is now done by another SpaceX rocket: the Falcon 9.
“They’re only cutting into their own margins, and launch is a pretty tough industry,” Rosseau said. “That’s something that we’re watching for. When this does come online and they do start launching it with some frequency, what will be the actual cost that they’re charging people?”
Marshall and LaFreniere, the couple from Maine, are excited for this future promised by a fully reusable rocket.
They’re excited for their own future, too. Marshall waited for the beach to clear out, then told LaFreniere there was one more thing he wanted to do.
“I said, ‘You can’t top the rocket launch,’ ” LaFreniere recalled.
Then he asked LaFreniere to marry him.
“It was the most memorable day for many reasons,” she said.