SpaceX's Next-Gen Starship Passes Its First Flight Test Despite Snags
SpaceX's next-generation Starship V3 rocket got off to a glorious start for its first test flight, and although not all of its engines fired fully according to plan, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the mission "scored a goal for humanity."
This was the 12th Starship launch, but the first one since SpaceX completed a thorough redesign of the rocket's Super Heavy first-stage booster, the second stage (known as Ship), the Raptor rocket engines and the launch facilities at SpaceX's Starbase in south Texas.
Super Heavy lit all 33 of its Raptor V3 engines at liftoff, and successfully sent Ship on its way over the Gulf of Mexico. But after stage separation, Super Heavy shut down its engines prematurely. As a result, the booster tumbled through the atmosphere to an uncontrolled but safe splashdown in the gulf. SpaceX had planned for a controlled splashdown but hadn't planned to recover the booster, so it was no great loss.
Only five of the six Raptor engines on the second-stage Ship remained lit for the next phase of the test flight. "I wouldn't call it a nominal orbital insertion but ... it's within bounds," SpaceX commentator Dan Huot said.
During the coast phase of the mission, SpaceX had to pass up an opportunity to try relighting one of the engines in space. It was, however, able to follow through with the deployment of 20 satellite simulators, plus two "Dodger Dog" satellites that were modified to test new technologies for SpaceX's Starlink V3 satellites.
One of the modified satellites captured video looking back at Ship as it drifted away, and then transmitted the video back to Earth via SpaceX's Starlink network. Huot said the video monitoring procedure would come in handy for making in-space inspections of Ship's heat shield during future flights. "That's one we've been chasing for a while, so [it's] really cool to see it," he said.
About an hour after launch, Ship made a fiery atmospheric re-entry over the Indian Ocean. Onboard cameras showed the glow of superheated plasma surrounding the rocket stage, followed by occasional flashes of flame. In the moments just before splashdown, Ship fired up two of its Raptor engines — as opposed to the three that would typically be used for a landing — and flipped itself upright just in time for the end.
When the rocket hit the water, it burst into flames. Meanwhile, hundreds of SpaceX employees watching the webcast burst into applause. "USA, USA, USA!" they chanted.
"We guaranteed excitement at the beginning of the show, and I would say Starship delivered," mission commentator Jake Berkowitz said.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was quick to congratulate his team for "an epic first Starship V3 launch and landing."
"You scored a goal for humanity," he wrote in a posting to X.
SpaceX's team members emphasized that they didn't expect everything to go right the first time. "This is a flight test," Huot said. "We're trying to intentionally find where our limits are."
The day before, SpaceX had to postpone launch when a pin on the launch pad's quick-disconnect arm failed to release itself properly. Engineers made changes to the ground-system software and hardware — including some welding at the pad — to fix the issue for today's launch.
The 407-foot-tall Starship V3 is slightly bigger than the previous version of SpaceX's super-rocket, but the biggest changes are on the inside. Here are a few highlights of the redesign:
- Streamlining the design of the methane-fueled Raptor V3 engines and increasing their liftoff thrust from 507,000 to 551,000 pounds per engine. Super Heavy is now capable of 18 million pounds of liftoff thrust, which makes it more than twice as powerful as the Apollo-era Saturn V or its modern-day successor, NASA's Space Launch System.
- Putting an integrated hot-stage ring between the booster and the second stage, which is expected to streamline reusability.
- Replacing the previous four stabilization fins on Super Heavy with three larger, heavier grid fins, which should improve control and durability.
- Beefing up Starship's satellite deployer, which is nicknamed the "Pez Dispenser." The deployer is designed to deal out as many as 60 Starlink V3 satellites per mission.
- Installing shorter "chopsticks" on the launch tower, which is expected to make it easier to catch Starship's stages when they fly themselves back to the launch pad.
- Fortifying the base of the pad and improving the flame-diverter system, which should cut down on the time and energy required for post-launch refurbishment.
In the near term, SpaceX is banking on the Starship system to facilitate the expansion of its Starlink satellite broadband network — which is currently the only profitable part of the SpaceX's business, according to documents filed this week in preparation for the company's initial public offering.
Putting Starship into operation is a key step in Musk's plan to send a million solar-powered satellites into space to process data for artificial-intelligence applications. It's also a key step for a wide array of other commercial space ventures that are hoping to take advantage of Starship's larger payload capacity and cheaper access to space.
A modified version of Starship is due to serve as the lunar lander for NASA's Artemis 4 mission, which is currently scheduled for as soon as 2028. NASA is already deep into preparations for an Artemis 3 mission that's aimed at testing the Starship lander and/or Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander in low Earth orbit next year.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman alluded to that mission today on SpaceX's webcast. "We're looking forward to meeting up next year in Earth orbit," he said.
In the longer term, Musk envisions creating a fleet of Starships that could transport thousands of spacefarers to settlements on Mars. SpaceX hasn't yet scheduled any Mars missions — but this week, crypto investor Chun Wang announced that he intends to be on Starship's first Mars flyby, whenever it takes place. "It will light the fire. It will ignite the imagination, and it will build the momentum," he said.
