BOCA CHICA: Starship, the world’s most powerful rocket, flew further and faster than ever before during its third test flight on Thursday, although it was eventually lost as it re-entered the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean, SpaceX said.

Lift-off from the company’s Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas came around 8:25am local time (1325 GMT) and was carried live on a webcast that was watched by millions on social media platform X.

The sleek mega rocket is vital to Nasa’s plans for landing astronauts on the Moon later this decade — and Elon Musk’s hopes of colonising Mars some day. “Congrats to @SpaceX on a successful test flight!” tweeted Nasa administrator Bill Nelson following the test.

Starship flew halfway around the globe and faster than ever at 26,000kph

All eyes were on Thursday’s launch after two prior attempts ended in spectacular explosions. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing: The company has adopted a rapid trial-and-error approach in order to accelerate development, and the strategy has brought it numerous successes in the past.

Objectives met

When the two stages of Starship are combined, the rocket stands 397 feet (121 meters) tall — beating the Statue of Liberty by a comfortable 90 feet. Its Super Heavy Booster produces 16.7 million pounds (74.3 Meganewtons) of thrust, almost double that of the world’s second most powerful rocket, Nasa’s Space Launch System — though the latter is now certified, while Starship is still a prototype.

Starship’s third launch test in its fully stacked configuration was its most ambitious yet and the company said it was able to meet many of its objectives. These included opening and closing Starship’s payload door to test its ability to deliver satellites into orbit.

High definition footage from an onboard camera showed Starship coasting in space, with the curve of the Earth visible in the background. It hit a top speed of more than 26,000 kilometers per hour (16,000 mph) and achieved an altitude of more than 200 kilometers above sea level.

Starship flew halfway around the globe, then began its descent over the Indian Ocean, with engineers cheering as its heat shield composed of 18,000 hexagonal tiles glowed red hot. But ground control stopped receiving signals and announcers declared the vessel “lost” before it could achieve its final goal of splashing down. The lower-stage booster also failed to make a successful water landing, and as a result, the Federal Aviation Administration said it was opening a “mishap” investigation. “Starship will make life multiplanetary,” Musk, the company’s billionaire founder, posted on X afterward, emphasising the progress made.

Real world testing

The first so-called “integrated” test came in April 2023. SpaceX was forced to blow up Starship within a few minutes of launch, because the two stages failed to separate.

The rocket disintegrated into a ball of fire and crashed into the Gulf of Mexico, sending a dust cloud over a town several miles away.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2024