Top line
SpaceX launched Starship on Thursday for a seventh test flight, after weather problems pushed back an experiment that will feature the spacecraft’s first payload deployment test, and although it managed to catch the Super Heavy Booster, SpaceX lost communication with Starship shortly after.
SpaceX’s Starship mega-rocket is ready for a test flight from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, … (+)
Key facts
SpaceX launched Starship from Boca Chica, Texas, around 5:37 p.m. EST, and live streaming of the launch began around 4:15 p.m. on SpaceX’s X account and website.
Starship’s Super Heavy booster is set to reuse one of its 33 engines for the first time, and SpaceX managed to catch the booster with two mechanical arms for the second time, about seven and a half minutes after liftoff ( the first time was in the fifth test launch).
However, shortly after the capture, a problem arose: a SpaceX commentator on the livestream said, “we believe we lost the ship during its ascent phase…during that ascent phase, a few engines are broke down, then shortly after we lost. communication.”
Starship’s flight was scheduled to last just over 66 minutes, according to SpaceX, and was to feature several experiments for the spacecraft, including Starship’s first payload deployment test – a set of 10 replica Starlink satellites – and tests spaceship flight computer upgrade. , avionics and heat shield.
During Starship’s sixth launch test, in November, the spacecraft crashed into the Indian Ocean, but an attempt to capture its Super Heavy booster was ignored.
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What went wrong during launch?
SpaceX said it would share more information about what went wrong during the launch in the coming hours and days.
To watch
SpaceX has requested FAA approval to increase the maximum number of annual Starship launches from five to 25. The FAA is expected to rule on the proposal after the public comment period ends on January 17.
Key context
SpaceX has launched Starship six times since the spacecraft’s first flight in April 2023. SpaceX has been testing Starship to make the spacecraft fully reusable, allowing the ship to carry both cargo and people into space. Starship is considered the largest and most powerful rocket ever developed and measures nearly 400 feet. The first test lasted only four minutes, and a second test flight in November 2023 lasted eight minutes due to a “rapid and unplanned disassembly.” The spacecraft successfully reentered Earth’s atmosphere on its fourth test launch in June 2024, during which SpaceX remained in contact with Starship throughout its flight and the spacecraft completed its first landing approximately one hour after launch.
Tangent
Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company Blue Origin successfully launched its New Glenn heavy-lift rocket into orbit for the first time on Thursday, although the company failed to recover the rocket’s reusable booster stage. Bezos’ Blue Origin and Musk’s SpaceX have competed in recent years for government contracts and funding to develop a lunar lander for Artemis V, a NASA mission that will return astronauts to the Moon in 2029. NASA has said that she intended to have the two companies develop cargo versions of NASA’s crewed human landing systems.
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Further reading
