Space & Astronomy

Elon Musk's Starship soars into the heavens on successful third test flight

By T.K. Randall
March 14, 2024

Image Credit: SpaceX Back in April 2023, the maiden test flight of the SpaceX CEO's ambitious spacecraft Starship ended with a bang when the vehicle exploded a mere four minutes after launch.

Then, a few months later, while the second test flight did see Starship manage to reach space for the first time and its two stages successfully separated around two-and-a-half minutes into the flight, the signal from the second stage was ultimately lost, suggesting that it had in fact self-destructed.

Now, for the first time this year, Starship has launched again and things are definitely looking up.

The third flight, which was live-streamed online, saw the next-generation space vehicle launch atop a Super Heavy booster from the SpaceX Starbase launchpad near Boca Chica Village, Texas.Reaching a peak altitude of 234km, the spacecraft flew further and faster than ever before, although it did burn up during re-entry rather than make the planned splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

The booster, too, came to a violent end in the Gulf of Mexico after its engines didn't fully ignite.

Even so, the mission has been hailed as a success and a major step toward Elon Musk's goal of creating a viable interplanetary spacecraft capable of carrying large payloads to Mars.

"Starship reached orbital velocity!" he wrote.

"Congratulations SpaceX team! Starship will make life multiplanetary."


Source: Telegraph

Tags: SpaceX, Starship