SpaceX Starship Test: Major Wins in 10th Flight

SpaceX Achieves Major Starship Test Flight Success

SpaceX’s Starship rocket successfully launched on its 10th integrated flight test on Tuesday evening, achieving two significant objectives and breaking a recent pattern of unsuccessful attempts.

Launch and Booster Test

The 403-foot-tall rocket departed from Starbase, SpaceX’s launch complex and newly established city, at 7:30 p.m. ET. This launch followed two postponements earlier in the week. Ascent was powered by 33 Raptor engines utilizing methane fuel, with stage separation occurring approximately three minutes after liftoff.

During its descent, the Super Heavy booster executed a novel procedure. It deliberately deactivated its primary landing engines and switched to redundant systems. This maneuver was designed to provide valuable data regarding booster performance in the event of an engine failure.

The test appeared to proceed as intended, culminating in a controlled splashdown of the 232-foot-tall booster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Upper Stage Achievements and Challenges

Concurrently, the Starship upper stage attained space. For the first time in the Starship program, the payload door, designed in a Pez dispenser style, was successfully opened in orbit.

Eight Starlink mass-simulator satellites were then deployed, a capability SpaceX had previously aimed to demonstrate but hadn't achieved on prior missions. Furthermore, a Raptor engine was successfully reignited while in space.

The upper stage was then directed towards a splashdown in the Indian Ocean. Upon impact, the vehicle overturned and subsequently experienced an explosion.

Thermal Protection System Testing

The spacecraft’s exterior endured extreme heat during atmospheric reentry, providing a crucial testing ground for the enhanced thermal-protection system. SpaceX leveraged this flight to conduct various experiments.

These included the deliberate removal of tiles from specific areas to assess the performance of the ship’s outer layer during reentry, as well as testing a new metallic tile and an actively cooled tile.

Improved Communication and Control

Critically, the upper stage completed the entire flight profile and achieved splashdown in the Indian Ocean while maintaining communication with SpaceX engineers. The previous flight experienced a loss of attitude control during the coast phase, preventing the deployment of the payload doors.

Engineers evidently resolved the issues that caused this prior problem.

Implications for Future Missions

This successful test represents a substantial advancement for SpaceX. Previous flights have resulted in the loss of the Starship upper stage due to recurring technical difficulties.

These persistent challenges had prompted questions regarding the rocket’s readiness to support NASA’s planned human lunar landing mission, targeted for mid-2027, or to deploy the next generation of Starlink satellites.

The Starship program aims to eventually facilitate human and cargo transport to Mars. While significant technical hurdles remain, SpaceX has taken a notable step forward in realizing this ambitious goal.