SpaceX loses the spacecraft mid-flight, but picks up the rocket again

SpaceX launched the seventh test flight of its Starship rocket on Thursday, but lost contact with the upper stage of the rocket as it continues its journey into space.

The company’s webcast showed that data transmissions from the Starship spacecraft stopped about nine minutes after launch.

“We can confirm that we have lost the ship,” said Kate Tice, SpaceX’s director of quality systems engineering.

SpaceX didn’t specify further, but it’s possible that losing the spacecraft mid-flight meant the rocket collapsed.

The spacecraft was launched from SpaceX’s “Starbase” facility near Brownsville, Texas, shortly after 5:30 p.m. ET. A few minutes later, the Super Heavy rocket booster returned to land at the launch site, SpaceX’s second successful “capture” during the flight.

There are no people on board the spacecraft flight. However, Elon Musk’s company is flying 10 “Starlink simulators” in the rocket’s payload bay and plans to attempt to deploy the satellite-like objects at once into space. This is it The main test of the missile’s capabilitiesBecause SpaceX needs Starship to deploy its much larger and heavier next generation of Starlink satellites.

Although SpaceX did not specify what material Starlink simulators are made of, mass simulators are commonly used in rocket vehicle development and are often simple constructions of metal or concrete that weigh roughly the same as the object in question. Since the rocket does not reach orbit, the simulators are expected to follow a similar path to the rocket, and are designed to burn up during reentry.

Assuming the launch goes according to plan, the spacecraft will arrive in space and then travel halfway around Earth before reentering the atmosphere and falling into the Indian Ocean about an hour after liftoff.

The rocket’s booster returned after separating from the Starship and landed on the arms of the company’s launch tower, a feat the company achieved on the fifth flight but missed on the sixth flight.

As with every previous flight, SpaceX aims to advance development further by evaluating additional spacecraft capabilities, including tests of its heat shield tiles and its extensive return trajectory.

Starship is crucial to the company’s plans, even with its $350 billion valuation and already dominant position in the space industry.

Starship is the longest and most powerful rocket ever launched. Fully stacked on a Super Heavy booster, the Starship is 403 feet long and has a diameter of about 30 feet. SpaceX has flown the entire Starship rocket system in six spaceflight tests so far since April 2023, at a steadily increasing pace.

The super-heavy booster, measuring 232 feet tall, is what begins the rocket’s journey into space. At its base are 33 Raptor engines, which together produce 16.7 million pounds of thrust — about double the 8.8 million pounds of thrust from NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, which first launched in 2022.

The spacecraft itself, which stands 171 feet tall, has six Raptor engines — three for use while in Earth’s atmosphere and three for operation in the vacuum of space.

The missile operates with liquid oxygen and liquid methane. The complete system requires more than 10 million pounds of propellant to launch.

The spacecraft flying this launch, designated Ship 33, also represents a second-generation version of the vehicle called “Block 2.”

SpaceX noted that “significant upgrades” to this vehicle include changes to the flaps on the front of the vehicle, a redesign of the propulsion system to enhance performance, an improved flight computer, 30 cameras placed along the vehicle to monitor the rocket, and an enhanced heat shield. .

Additionally, the booster for this flight attempt features a reused Raptor engine. This engine flew during the fifth test flight last year.

The Starship system is designed to be fully reusable and aims to become a new way to transport goods and people beyond Earth. The rocket is also crucial to NASA’s plan to return astronauts to the moon. SpaceX has won a multibillion-dollar contract from the agency to use Starship as a crewed lunar lander as part of NASA’s Artemis Moon program.