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SpaceX loses contact with super heavy Starship rocket shortly before completing 3rd test flight; DEETS inside
Elon Musk's SpaceX claimed on Thursday that it had lost communication with the Starship during re-entry over the Indian Ocean, hours after the rocket was launched from its Texas launch pad.
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SpaceX launched Super Heavy-Starship rocket on third test flight
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The spacecraft was lost as it descended back to Earth
SpaceX nearly completed an hour-long test flight of their mega-rocket on its third attempt, but the spacecraft was lost as it dropped back to Earth. The company claimed that when Starship got closer to its objective—a splashdown in the Indian Ocean—it lost contact with it. After takeoff from the southernmost point of Texas, close to the Mexican border, almost everything had gone smoothly up to that point.
SpaceX considers Thursday's test launch a win
Two test flights ended in explosions shortly after takeoff last year. However, this recent attempt, lasting over 50 minutes, was considered a success by Elon Musk of SpaceX, NASA, and Starship. They achieved new heights and distances, with hopes that Starship will safely transport astronauts to the moon in the coming years.
How the rocket took off before losing contact
After taking off on Thursday morning, the massive 400-foot (121-meter) Starship, which is the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, flew east over the Gulf of Mexico. Soon after, the booster separated from the spaceship and plunged into the gulf, but not without a bit of unexpected excitement caused by what appeared to be a malfunction in one of the engines. There were no passengers or satellites on board as the spacecraft continued its journey eastward.
The starship made its way across the Atlantic and South Africa before reaching the Indian Ocean, flying at an altitude of approximately 145 miles (233 kilometers). However, after only fifteen minutes into the mission, at the 49-minute mark, all communication was lost, indicating that the spacecraft most likely disintegrated. At that time, it was ascending to a height of forty miles (65 kilometers) and traveling at a speed of about 16,000 mph (25,700 kph).
NASA is paying close attention to the necessity of Starship for landing humans on the moon in the next two to three years. These upcoming moonwalkers, the first since the Apollo program, will leave NASA's Orion capsule in lunar orbit and reach the lunar surface with the help of a Starship.
SpaceX received praise for what NASA Administrator Bill Nelson called a "successful test flight" as part of the Artemis moon landing program. The sleek, stainless-steel spaceship soared into the sky on the Super Heavy first-stage launcher. Although both the spacecraft and launcher are designed to be reusable, they were never intended to be recovered.
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