SpaceX Starship launches on test flight after two explosions

Hindustan Times - SpaceX’s colossal Starship rocket blasted off on Tuesday in a key test of the Elon Musk-led company’s ability to bounce back from explosive failures during its previous two test flights.

The launch system, comprised of the Starship upper portion and its Super Heavy booster, thundered off the company’s launchpad in South Texas at around 6:36 p.m. local time. 

With the ninth flight, SpaceX plans to test upgrades to the vehicle, re-fly a booster it used previously and also deploy dummy satellites designed to mimic upgraded Starlink internet satellites the rocket is meant to carry when it’s operational.

The stakes are particularly high after flights in January and March were cut short just minutes after takeoff when the spacecraft exploded over the Gulf of Mexico, sending streams of debris raining down from the sky and disrupting air travel. 

The results failed to live up to earlier flights when the vehicle made it to space, partially circled the globe, survived the plunge through the atmosphere and splashed into the ocean roughly as planned. 

Tuesday’s mission comes as Musk, the world’s richest person, pulls back from his political work in the US government. After the flight, he plans to host an all-hands-style talk for SpaceX employees at 8 p.m. local time out of SpaceX’s newly incorporated city, Starbase, in South Texas. 

Starship is critical to Musk’s and SpaceX’s Mars vision, as the rocket is meant to serve as the primary spacecraft for transporting people to the Red Planet and then bringing them back to Earth. Musk has recently declared that SpaceX will send a Starship rocket to Mars carrying robots built by his electric car company, Tesla Inc., as early as 2026 — an incredibly ambitious timeline. 

SpaceX also holds contracts with NASA worth roughly $4 billion to land the agency’s astronauts on the moon with Starship.

A third botched test flight would call into question SpaceX’s progress on Starship and cast further doubt on Musk’s repeated claim that the vehicle will be ready for cargo flights to Mars as soon as next year. 

It also highlights the risks involved with SpaceX’s rapid fly-fail-fix development plan for Starship, the largest and most powerful launch system ever developed, and how far the company still has to go to ready the vehicle for operational flight.