by SpaceX has successfully launched the latest generation of its Starship rocket in a crucial test for Elon Musk’s Mars ambitions.
Starship Flight 7 lifted off from the company’s Starbase facility in Texas at 4:37 p.m. local time (10:37 p.m. GMT) on Thursday, with the first booster stage returning to the launch pad shortly after. The second stage was unable to complete the flight test because its engines began to shut down as it approached orbital speed.
The Block 2 Starship is two meters taller than its predecessors and is the largest rocket ever built – more than twice as tall as the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
After the launch of the 123-meter-tall rocket with which Elon Musk plans to colonize Mars, the rocket’s Super Heavy booster returned to the launch tower, where a giant rod mechanism caught it in a controlled maneuver.
The first landing system of its kind is designed for rapid reusability, allowing ground crews to refuel the rocket and send it back on its way, much like an airplane.
SpaceX has only captured the launch vehicle once so far, with the last attempt in November aborted in the final moments.
Communication was lost with the upper stage of the rocket, which was destined to sink in the Indian Ocean after a 90-minute flight.
SpaceX said the spacecraft was most likely lost shortly after separation from the Super Heavy launch vehicle because the spacecraft had a number of significant upgrades that were “intentionally designed and flown to test the limits… and push the limits of this vehicle.” .
Upgrades to the latest Starship rocket include smaller doors, propulsion system redesigns, a 25 percent increase in fuel volume and a complete overhaul of the vehicle’s avionics.
It’s also the first time SpaceX has launched a payload into space on a Starship rocket, albeit a fake one. Ten “Starlink simulators” designed to mimic the company’s space internet satellites were supposed to be deployed in space, but appear to have been lost with the rocket’s second stage.
SpaceX hopes to begin its first commercial Starship missions later this year.
