SpaceX plans on launching the massive vehicle from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center once the prototyping phase is over and plans shift to operational missions.
Starship, however, isn't just limited to Texas. Before SpaceX, there was no space industry presence there. Low-lying and close to the ocean, the area is much like Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center, especially during the Apollo days. SpaceX is using Starbase, an operations and production area near Brownsville, Texas, for prototyping and building the first Starships. Looking forward to all that SpaceX learns, to the next flight test - and beyond." "Every great achievement throughout history has demanded some level of calculated risk, because with great risk comes great reward. "Congrats to SpaceX on Starship’s first integrated flight test," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement. But technicians were able to clear the problem quickly and turn the vehicle around for another attempt 72 hours later. Starship would have continued to an altitude of about 150 miles before a soft water landing of its own near Hawaii.Īn attempt to launch Starship earlier this week was scrubbed because of technical problems with a frozen valve in the Super Heavy booster. Just before the three-minute mark, Starship and Super Heavy would have separated, and the latter would have attempted a soft water landing.
Had everything gone according to plan, Starship would have cleared the tower, then flown over the Gulf of Mexico. Previously: SpaceX scrubs launch of Starship's first integrated test flight from Texas Graphics: How SpaceX Starship compares Artemis rocket The farther we fly, the more data we collect." "From a milestone standpoint, our main goal is to clear the pad, (meaning ascend past the 500-foot launch tower without a failure)," said Kate Tice, an engineering manager at SpaceX, in the launch webcast. Anything else, SpaceX said, meant extra data for engineers to review. Teams initially had hoped to see the rocket's engines ignite, then see the vehicle clear the tower. SpaceX later confirmed the rocket's flight termination system, or FTS, was activated to destroy the tumbling vehicle for safety reasons.Īside from the separation failure, it also appeared three of the rocket's 33 Raptor engines failed to ignite at liftoff.ĭespite the hardware failures, Elon Musk's company SpaceX largely considered the mission a success. It eventually broke apart and crashed into the Gulf. Just over three minutes into the flight over the Gulf of Mexico, it became apparent the first-stage Super Heavy booster and second-stage Starship vehicle weren't going to separate as planned, sending the combined 400-foot stack into a tumble. EDT from the company's Starbase operations area near Brownsville, Texas. SpaceX's Starship, already towering over the low-lying southernmost tip of Texas, gained even more height early Thursday when it launched on its first integrated test and became the most powerful rocket in history.īut the rocket met a fiery end shortly after liftoff at 9:33 a.m.
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