The mission ended earlier than expected, but it remains a great success for the American company.
Getting a launcher the size of Starship off the ground is no easy feat. As proof, its first flight ended in quite an explosion, and it is not impossible that the next tests will suffer a similar fate. In any case, this is what has just happened with its second flight, which took place this Saturday.
However, SpaceX remains very happy with the experience, and for very good reason.
A successful hot separation
The challenges awaiting the American company are considerable, and we are not only talking about the dimensions of Starship. One of them is the separation of the latter’s two stages, which differs from what SpaceX usually does with its other devices. The last stage of the rocket, in fact, fires its engines before SuperHeavy detaches. This is a delicate procedure, which failed in the previous test.
However, this time, both stages succeeded in this maneuver, to the applause of observers who were waiting for this sequence with great attention. Starship then continued its solo journey, and SuperHeavy began its return to the land, or at least in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.
However, everything did not go as planned. SuperHeavy did not complete its descent and broke up in what SpaceX called a ” unprogrammed rapid disassembly ”, less than a minute after separating from Starship.
The latter, too, did not reach its destination. While he was at an altitude of 148 kilometers, communications with him were cut. “ We think we lost the second floor said John Insprucker, principal integration engineer at SpaceX. He then added that the aircraft had triggered its flight abort system “ very late in combustion “.
An explosive ending, therefore. Nevertheless, this is a giant step for SpaceX which, late in the development of Starship, will be able to draw welcome lessons from it.
Of course, the Clubic editorial team will come back in more detail about this flight at the beginning of next week, a promise!
Source : SpaceNews
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