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SpaceX's colossal deep-space rocket system, Starship, took off successfully on Saturday morning; however, the mission came to an abrupt halt with an unexpected explosion and the loss of signal.
The Super Heavy booster and Starship spacecraft successfully separated after liftoff. As the Starship ignited its engines and moved away, the Super Heavy booster was destroyed, bursting into flames above the Gulf of Mexico. However, the Starship spacecraft managed to continue its journey briefly.
This time, the Starship system achieved a much greater distance in flight compared to the previous attempt in April. The rocket and spacecraft took off from the launchpad at 8 a.m. ET, with all 33 Raptor engines of the Super Heavy booster successfully igniting. SpaceX has faced difficulties in getting these engines, which are clustered at the base of the rocket, to consistently power on simultaneously even during ground tests.
The Starship upper stage embarked on its journey on Saturday morning, attached to the Super Heavy first stage, a rocket towering at 232 feet (70.7 meters). Approximately two and a half minutes later, after a powerful liftoff from the launchpad, the Super Heavy booster depleted most of its fuel, allowing the Starship spacecraft to detach by igniting its own engines.
The Starship spacecraft utilized its six engines to maintain its momentum, propelling itself at increasing speeds. SpaceX's objective was to propel the spacecraft towards near orbital velocities, typically reaching speeds of about 17,500 miles per hour (28,000 kilometers per hour). Ascending to an altitude of approximately 93 miles (150 kilometers) above the Earth's surface, the Starship surpassed the threshold of space.
The boundary between Earth and outer space is a subject of debate. While the US government sets the edge at 50 miles (80 kilometers) above Earth's surface, internationally the Kármán line, positioned 62 miles (100 kilometers) above sea level, is commonly used as the marker. Nonetheless, there remains a significant amount of uncertainty and differing opinions regarding this division.
SpaceX's Starship embarks on its second test flight from the Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, on Saturday morning. However, both the rocket booster and spacecraft were unfortunately lost shortly after liftoff.
The SpaceX team eagerly awaited signal acquisition from the spacecraft, but they mentioned during the livestream that there had been a loss of the second stage.
"Aerospace engineer John Insprucker mentioned that the automated flight termination system on the second stage seemed to have activated very late during the burn as we were moving towards our destination over the Gulf of Mexico."
The flight termination system is a self-destruct mechanism employed by SpaceX to ensure that the Starship remains on its intended trajectory. According to SpaceX, the booster encountered an unexpected disassembly shortly after stage separation, while the Starship's engines continued firing for several minutes during its journey to space. SpaceX, formerly known as Twitter, shared that the insights gained from this test will contribute to enhancing the reliability of the Starship as they strive to make human life multiplanetary.
The Starships test flight, licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration, had a statement released by the FAA spokesperson after the flight. The statement informs that a mishap took place during the launch of the SpaceX Starship OFT-2 from Boca Chica, Texas, on Saturday, November 18. As a consequence of this anomaly, the vehicle was lost. However, there were no reports of injuries or damage to public property.
The agency will carry out an investigation into the incident to establish the underlying reason for the loss of the Starship. This is a standard procedure.
The FAA states that the resumption of the Starship Super Heavy vehicle's flights will be contingent upon their determination that no aspect of the mishap, whether it be a system, process, or procedure, poses a risk to public safety.
It took more than four months for the FAA to complete the last mishap investigation after Starships test flight in April.
Starship breaks the sound barrier during its launch.
Eric Gay/AP
NASA plans to invest up to $4 billion in the rocket system, aiming to utilize the Starship capsule to transport astronauts to the lunar surface for its Artemis III mission, scheduled for a potential launch in 2025.
The initiative seeks to bring humans back to the moon after a lapse of fifty years, and the accomplishment of this trial flight would have brought the US space agency and SpaceX one step closer to achieving that objective.
"Congratulations to the teams who made advancements in today's flight test," shared NASA Administrator Bill Nelson on X. "Space travel is a courageous endeavor that calls for a can-do attitude and bold innovation. Today's test provides us with an opportunity to learn and then take flight again. Working together, @NASA and @SpaceX will lead humanity's return not only to the Moon but also to Mars and beyond."
During the Artemis I mission, on flight day 20, Orion successfully enclosed the Moon during its return-powered flyby. The spacecraft committed to a splashdown on December 11th after a precisely timed burn of 3 minutes and 27 seconds.
NASA
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"Every test brings us one step closer to the historic moment when the first woman sets foot on the Moon, thanks to the #Artemis III Starship human landing system. Excited to discover the valuable lessons that this test will provide, propelling us towards the next milestone," posted Jim Free, NASA's associate administrator for exploration systems development, on X.
The potential failure may result in significant setbacks for the development of Starships and the scheduled missions outlined in its plan, most notably the Artemis III mission by NASA. In 2021, the US space agency chose Starship as the lunar lander for this crucial mission.
Hot staging process
The root cause of the Starship rockets failure on Saturday was not immediately clear.
The booster explosion took place following the inaugural trial of a process known as "hot staging" by SpaceX on Saturday. This technique was utilized to detach the Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket subsequent to liftoff.
During the launch, most rockets undergo a stage separation process. This entails the separation of the bottommost rocket booster from the rest of the spacecraft or rocket.
In the case of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, the first-stage booster, also known as the bottommost part of the rocket, separates from the upper section shortly after approximately three minutes of flight. This separation is achieved by utilizing pneumatic pushers located within the interstage of the rocket, which is the black band positioned around its center.
Instead, the Starship spacecraft ignited its own engines to propel itself away from the Super Heavy booster, resulting in a forceful separation. This was a pivotal moment for SpaceX, as the hot staging phase was anticipated to be the most perilous aspect of the flight, according to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's remarks in October.
SpaceX had previously stated that the mission would be deemed successful once Starship successfully completed hot staging. However, shortly after hot staging, the Super Heavy booster encountered uncontrollable tumbling and subsequently exploded above the Gulf of Mexico. SpaceX's intention was to re-ignite the engines of the Super Heavy and execute a controlled landing.
"We were aware that hot staging would be highly dynamic," stated Kate Tice, senior manager of SpaceX Quality Systems Engineering, in the livestream. We acknowledged the potential risk of the booster not surviving, yet we intended to leverage this information to enhance the performance of the booster for future hot stages."
At first, the Starship spacecraft maintained its trajectory following the separation.
Approximately eight minutes into the launch, cheers reverberated in mission control as the Starship neared the completion of its engine burn, positioning it in Earth's orbit. However, nine minutes after liftoff, SpaceX announced the unfortunate loss of video signal with the Starship.
Around 11.5 minutes into the journey, the company confirmed the loss of data, indicating that the Starship was not progressing as intended. Consequently, the spacecraft's flight termination system was activated to avoid deviation from its course, promptly concluding the test flight.
If everything had gone as intended, Starship would have kept gaining speed as it ascended toward outer space. Following that, the Starship spacecraft was scheduled to perform almost an entire orbit around the Earth, with the objective of making a controlled landing in the Pacific Ocean close to Hawaii.
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The destruction of the vehicle shortly after liftoff resembled the Starship's initial launch attempt in April, where the Super Heavys engines shut down unexpectedly and the rocket lost control shortly after liftoff. To salvage the situation, SpaceX had to activate the self-destruct feature, resulting in both stages exploding above the Gulf of Mexico.
Following the April incident, SpaceX faced months of recovery. The company had to rebuild its launch site, which had been severely damaged by the immense force of the rocket's engine propulsion. Additionally, upgrades were made to both the Starship spacecraft and the Super Heavy booster.
SpaceX usually embraces fiery accidents during the initial phases of rocket development. The company firmly believes that it can enhance rocket building more rapidly and affordably by flying early prototypes, which sometimes end up exploding, rather than solely relying on ground testing and computer simulations.
Following the explosive first test flight in April, SpaceX acknowledged that "success stems from our learning, and we have gained an immense amount of knowledge."
