SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft has been in development for years and has been highly anticipated by the public. On Thursday, April 20, the spacecraft had its first test flight in South Texas. Unfortunately, the launch ended in an explosion, but it still met several of the company’s objectives for the vehicle.
The Starship spacecraft was designed to be the most powerful rocket ever built. It was meant to be capable of carrying cargo and humans to Mars and establishing a human settlement on the Red Planet. The company has been known for embracing fiery mishaps during the rocket development process. SpaceX maintains that such accidents are the quickest and most efficient way of gathering data, an approach that sets the company apart from its close partner NASA, which prefers slow, methodical testing over dramatic flare-ups.
The launch started off successfully as the massive Super Heavy rocket booster, which houses 33 engines, lifted off and sent a massive boom across the coastal landscape as it fired to life. The Starship spacecraft, riding atop the booster, soared out over the Gulf of Mexico. However, about 2½ minutes after takeoff, the Super Heavy rocket booster was scheduled to expend most of its fuel and separate from the Starship spacecraft, leaving the booster to be discarded in the ocean. The Starship was meant to use its own engines, blazing for more than six minutes, to propel itself to nearly orbital speeds.
The flight reached its highest point, 24.2 miles (39 kilometers) above the ground, and the explosion occurred about four minutes after liftoff. SpaceX stated that “the vehicle experienced multiple engines out during the flight test, lost altitude, and began to tumble.” SpaceX also noted that the flight termination system was commanded on both the booster and ship.
Despite the explosion, the launch was considered a success in many ways. Clearing the launchpad was a major milestone for Starship. In the lead-up to liftoff, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sought to temper expectations, saying, “Success is not what should be expected. … That would be insane.” Musk congratulated team members on “an exciting test launch” in a post-launch tweet and said they “learned a lot for next test launch in a few months.”
Furthermore, the explosion provided valuable data to SpaceX, and the company intends to review the data to improve Starship’s reliability. SpaceX tweeted, “With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s test will help us improve Starship’s reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multi-planetary.”
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) stated that “an anomaly occurred during the ascent and prior to stage separation resulting in a loss of the vehicle. No injuries or public property damage have been reported.” The FAA will oversee the mishap investigation of the Starship/Super Heavy test mission. A return to flight of the Starship/Super Heavy vehicle is based on the FAA determining that any system, process, or procedure related to the mishap does not affect public safety. This is standard practice for all mishap investigations.
Although the launch ended in an explosion, it was still an important milestone for SpaceX and its mission to make life multi-planetary. The company will continue to review the data and work towards their next flight test. SpaceX will need a new launch license from the FAA to make another attempt, but the company does not expect the process to be as laborious as securing the license for Thursday’s launch. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson shared his congratulations on the flight test and noted that every great achievement throughout history has demanded some level of calculated risk, because with great risk comes great reward. Looking forward to all that SpaceX learns, to the next flight test — and beyond.