{"id":792765,"date":"2025-01-16T20:32:08","date_gmt":"2025-01-17T01:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=792765"},"modified":"2025-01-16T20:32:08","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T01:32:08","slug":"spacex-catches-booster-but-loses-ship-in-starship-test-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=792765","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX Catches Booster But Loses Ship in Starship Test Flight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>SpaceX\u2019s seventh flight test of its massive Starship launch system brought good news as well as not-so-great news. <\/p>\n<p>The good news? The Super Heavy booster successfully flew itself back to the Texas launch site and was caught above the ground by the launch tower\u2019s chopstick-style mechanical arms. That\u2019s only the second \u201cMechazilla\u201d catch to be done during the Starship test program. The bad news is that the upper stage, known as Ship 33, was lost during its ascent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStarship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly during its ascent burn. Teams will continue to review data from today\u2019s flight test to better understand root cause,\u201d SpaceX said in a post-mission posting to X. \u201cWith a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today\u2019s flight will help us improve Starship\u2019s reliability.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-170479\"\/><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Starship launch and Super Heavy landing, 16 January 2025\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/v_4oS_M_0cc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Today\u2019s test marked the first use of an upper stage that was upgraded with a redesign of the avionics, the propulsion system and the forward control flaps. Ship 33\u2019s heat shield featured next-generation protective tiles as well as a backup layer of heat-resistant material. SpaceX had removed some of the tiles for this flight as a stress test for the heat shield.<\/p>\n<p>During the webcast, an onscreen graphic suggested that Ship experienced engine problems during its ascent. \u201cWe saw engines dropping out on telemetry,\u201d launch commentator Dan Huot said.<\/p>\n<p>After Ship\u2019s breakup, eyewitnesses posted videos showing a glittering hail of debris falling to Earth. Reuters reported that at least 20 commercial aircraft had to divert to different airports or alter their course to dodge the debris.<\/p>\n<p>In response to an emailed inquiry, the Federal Aviation Administration said it was aware of the anomaly that occurred during today\u2019s flight test and would be assessing the operation. \u201cThe FAA briefly slowed and diverted aircraft around the area where space vehicle debris was falling,\u201d the agency said via email. \u201cNormal operations have resumed.\u201d <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"\/>\n<p>If Ship had made it to space, it would have deployed 10 Starlink simulators that were about the same size and weight as SpaceX\u2019s Starlink broadband satellites. This was meant to test the procedure that SpaceX plans to use to put scores of Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit during a single Starship mission. <\/p>\n<p>At the end of the flight test, Ship would have made a controlled re-entry and splashdown into the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n<p>Starship is the world\u2019s most powerful launch system, with the booster\u2019s 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines providing liftoff thrust of 16.7 million pounds. That\u2019s more than twice the thrust of the Apollo-era Saturn V rocket, and almost twice the thrust of NASA\u2019s Space Launch System, which was first launched in 2022 for the uncrewed Artemis I moon mission.<\/p>\n<p>When fully stacked, Starship stands 403 feet (123 meters) tall. The system is meant to be fully reusable. Flight tests began in 2023, and SpaceX has made gradual progress. The first successful catch of the Super Heavy booster thrilled observers last October \u2014 and like that catch, today\u2019s catch drew cheers from SpaceX employees watching the launch.<\/p>\n<p>This year, SpaceX aims to demonstrate full reuse of Super Heavy and Ship, and promises to fly \u201cincreasingly ambitious missions.\u201d The Starship system would be used for large-scale satellite deployments \u2014 and eventually for missions beyond Earth orbit. A customized version of Starship is slated to serve as a crewed lunar landing system for NASA\u2019s Artemis III mission, which is currently scheduled for no earlier than mid-2027.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX founder Elon Musk envisions sending Starships on missions to Mars, perhaps starting in 2026. \u201cThese will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing intact on Mars,\u201d he said last September in a posting to X, the social-media platform that he owns.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf those landings go well, then the first crewed flights to Mars will be in 4 years,\u201d Musk said. \u201cFlight rate will grow exponentially from there, with the goal of building a self-sustaining city in about 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-block sd-like jetpack-likes-widget-wrapper jetpack-likes-widget-unloaded\" id=\"like-post-wrapper-24000880-170479-6789b315b9733\" data-src=\"https:\/\/widgets.wp.com\/likes\/?ver=14.0#blog_id=24000880&amp;post_id=170479&amp;origin=www.universetoday.com&amp;obj_id=24000880-170479-6789b315b9733&amp;n=1\" data-name=\"like-post-frame-24000880-170479-6789b315b9733\" data-title=\"Like or Reblog\">\n<h3 class=\"sd-title\">Like this:<\/h3>\n<p><span class=\"button\"><span>Like<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"loading\">Loading&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"sd-text-color\"\/><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.universetoday.com\/170479\/spacex-catches-booster-but-loses-ship-in-starship-test-flight\/?rand=772204\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SpaceX\u2019s seventh flight test of its massive Starship launch system brought good news as well as not-so-great news. The good news? The Super Heavy booster successfully flew itself back to&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":792766,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-792765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genaero"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=792765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/792766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=792765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=792765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=792765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}