Early Thursday morning, SpaceX’s huge Super Heavy-Starship rocket blasted off for its third test flight. People cheered as the upper stage made it to space successfully, which was a big deal. But then, both parts of the rocket broke apart when they landed in the ocean, which was a bit disappointing. Even so, SpaceX folks stayed positive, saying the flight was still really important for making better tech for trips to the moon and other planets. Overall, it was a big step forward in our journey to explore space.
A cool live video from a camera stuck on one of Starship’s fins, showing the rocket coming back into Earth’s atmosphere. It got super hot and turned into a big fireball! The tiles on Starship’s belly had to handle temperatures over 2,500 degrees – that’s seriously hot! This flight happened on SpaceX’s 22nd birthday and was its third test. Everyone was watching because this huge 400-foot-tall booster, named Starship, is going to be a big part of NASA’s plan to go back to the moon. Exciting stuff!
At 9:25 a.m. ET, the rocket took off from SpaceX’s test site in Boca Chica, Texas. This time, SpaceX accomplished two big goals that they hadn’t before with Starship tests: the spacecraft made it to orbit successfully, and then it came back into Earth’s atmosphere for the first time after about 40 minutes. But sadly, it seems like the spacecraft got lost on its way back to Earth, before it could land in the Indian Ocean like SpaceX planned.
Also Read: https://dailyjugarr.com/jedward-fire-back-at-vile-louis-walsh-over/
Clouds of dust
Right after that, the 394-foot-tall rocket started going up into the sky. It went through clouds of dust and steam made by the booster’s fiery exhaust mixing with water sprayed at the bottom of the launch pad to make it less shaky when the engines start.
As it sped up and used up fuel, the Super Heavy-Starship flew off towards the east over the Gulf of Mexico. Lots of people, including locals, tourists, and journalists, watched from the launch site and from nearby South Padre Island.
All 33 engines on the rocket looked like they were working fine, pushing it past the point where the air pressure is the strongest as it went faster than the speed of sound and got out of the thick lower part of the atmosphere.
Super Heavy Facing Hot Staging
Just over two minutes after liftoff, the engines on the rocket started to shut down as they were supposed to. Then, the six engines on the upper stage of the rocket, called Starship, fired up while the booster was still attached. This new change, called “hot staging,” happened a few seconds later. Soon after, the Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage separated smoothly.
When the test flight ended on Thursday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced they were looking into a problem, or “mishap,” involving both the Starship spacecraft and its first-stage booster, called Super Heavy.
The FAA said there weren’t any injuries or damage to public property from the incident. They’re checking out what happened with SpaceX leading the investigation. They want to make sure SpaceX follows the rules and their plan for investigating what went wrong.
SpaceX has to wait for the FAA to finish their investigation and fix anything they find before Starship can fly again.
Even though things didn’t go as planned, SpaceX still called it a great day.
They changed the time they wanted to launch Starship, but the launch went smoothly. About three minutes into the flight, the big booster called Super Heavy separated from the Starship spacecraft.
During the webcast, SpaceX admitted that the Super Heavy booster didn’t do its final burn. As it fell back to Earth, leading to a rough splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
SpaceX had a bunch of other things they wanted to show off during this flight. As opening and closing the payload door and moving fuel between Starship’s tanks while it was in space. They’ll have to look at the data after the flight to see if they managed to do those things.
A lot of what SpaceX tried out during this flight will be super useful for future missions. Missions are launching satellites and getting ready for NASA’s Artemis program to go back to the moon.
SpaceX also said that all these tests are helping them make Starship a fully reusable spaceship. Which is their big goal in the long run, although that wasn’t the main point of this test flight.
Starship’s first flight last April didn’t go so well the rocket blew up a few minutes after liftoff. The second launch in November went better, hitting some key goals, but SpaceX lost contact with the rocket not long after that.
0 Comments