SpaceX launches its Starship rocket on its final test flight but the spacecraft is destroyed: NPR

SpaceX launched its Starship rocket on its final test flight Thursday, catching the booster on the platform but losing contact with the ascending spacecraft as the engines flamed out.

Officials from Elon Musk’s company said the spacecraft was destroyed.

The spacecraft was supposed to fly over the Gulf of Mexico on a near-loop around the world, similar to previous test flights. SpaceX had packed it with 10 dummy satellites to practice releasing them. This was the first flight of this new and improved spacecraft.

Before the loss, SpaceX used giant mechanical arms for the second time to catch the booster at the pad minutes after liftoff from Texas. The descending booster hovered above the launch pad before being grabbed by a pair of mechanical arms called wands.

The 400-foot (123-meter) rocket blasted off late in the afternoon from Boca Chica, near the Mexican border. The late hour ensured entry into broad daylight on the other side of the world.

Traveling through space, the shiny, retro-looking spacecraft – designed by Musk as a Martian moon and ships – targeted the Indian Ocean for a controlled but destructive end to the hour-long demonstration.

SpaceX reinforced the capture tower after the November launch, which ended up damaging the robotic arms’ sensors, forcing the team to abandon a capture attempt. This booster was instead directed towards the Gulf.

The company also upgraded the spaceship for the latest demo. The test satellites were the same size as SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites and, like the spacecraft, were intended to drop into the Indian Ocean to close out the mission. Contact was lost approximately 8 1/2 minutes into the flight.

Musk plans to launch actual Starlinks on spacecraft before moving on to other satellites and, eventually, crews.

It was the seventh test flight of the world’s largest and most powerful rocket. NASA has reserved a pair of spacecraft to land astronauts on the Moon later this decade. Musk’s goal is Mars.

“Every Starship launch is one step closer to Mars,” Musk said via X before liftoff.

Hours earlier, in Florida, another billionaire’s rocket company – Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin – launched the newest supersized rocket, New Glenn. The rocket reached orbit on its first flight, successfully placing an experimental satellite thousands of miles above Earth. But the first stage booster was destroyed, missing its targeted landing on a floating platform in the Atlantic.