After back-to-back explosions, SpaceX launched its mega rocket Starship again on Tuesday evening in hopes of making it through the entire test flight and releasing a series of mock satellites.
The 403-foot (123-meter) rocket blasted off on its ninth demo from Starbase, SpaceX’s launch site at the southern tip of Texas. Residents voted this month to organize as an official city.
Plans called for the spacecraft to target a splashdown halfway around the world in the Indian Ocean, after popping out eight objects meant to resemble SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites.
It was the first time one of CEO Elon Musk’s Starships — intended for moon and Mars travel — flew with a recycled booster that aimed for the Gulf of Mexico. There were no plans to catch the booster with giant chopsticks back at the launch pad unlike earlier tests.
The previous two Starships never made it past the Caribbean. The demos earlier this year ended just minutes after liftoff, raining wreckage into the ocean. No injuries or serious damage were reported, although airline travel was disrupted. The Federal Aviation Administration last week cleared Starship for another flight, expanding the hazard area and pushing the liftoff outside peak air travel times.
Besides taking corrective action and making upgrades, SpaceX modified the latest spacecraft’s thermal tiles and installed special catch fittings. This one was meant to sink in the Indian Ocean, but the company wanted to test the add-ons for capturing future versions back at the pad, just like the boosters.
NASA needs SpaceX to make major strides over the next year with Starship — the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built — in order to land astronauts back on the moon. Next year’s moonshot with four astronauts will fly around the moon, but will not land. That will happen in 2027 at the earliest and require a Starship to get two astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface and back off again.
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