SpaceX continues to advance the development of Starship, the largest rocket ever constructed, achieving significant milestones during its third test flight on Thursday, surpassing the accomplishments of the previous two tests.
The towering 400-foot Starship rocket soared into the sky from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in southeastern Texas at 8:25 a.m. local time. Despite years of development, this marks only the third attempt by the company to undertake an orbital mission with Starship.
Following liftoff, Starship ascended through a nominal trajectory, with all 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy booster performing flawlessly. Around 2 minutes and 45 seconds into the mission, the two stages successfully separated, showcasing a pioneering stage separation method known as “hot staging.” This technique, where the upper stage ignites its engines to disengage from the Super Heavy booster, was successfully executed for the first time during the second Starship test flight in November last year.
The Starship upper stage continued its journey towards orbit, reaching orbital velocity, as confirmed by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who congratulated the team on Twitter.
However, during the descent phase, the Super Heavy booster encountered a setback when its engines failed to reignite for the landing burn, resulting in the loss of the booster. Nonetheless, SpaceX achieved another significant milestone by successfully opening Starship’s payload door for the first time, a critical capability for the rapid deployment of the next-generation Starlink satellites.
Additionally, a propellant transfer demonstration was conducted, although SpaceX did not disclose the outcome of this test. Propellant transfer is essential for SpaceX’s plans to support NASA’s lunar missions, as well as future missions to Mars, enabling the refueling of the spacecraft for extended journeys.
As Starship continued its coasting phase, SpaceX made the decision not to relight the engines to proceed with the test, opting instead to allow gravity to guide the spacecraft back through the lower atmosphere. Unfortunately, communication with Starship was lost, and the mission controllers announced the loss of the spacecraft, acknowledging the progress made despite the setback.
