Starship sets out on the path to achieving the ambitious goal of landing astronauts on the moon
SpaceX's Starship megarocket successfully reached orbit on March 14 in a historic third test launch from South Texas. Huge crowds gathered on South Padre Island and surrounding areas to witness the third test flight of the world's largest rocket. At 9:25 a.m. Eastern Time (13:25 GMT), Starship lifted off from the company's launch facility near Boca Chica Beach.
During the launch, the Raptor's 33 first stage engines ignited and lit up the dim morning sky, shrouding the ship in a plume of dust and smoke. After a few seconds, the rocket rose into the air, rapidly increasing in altitude.
This launch, called «Integrated Flight Tests-3» (IFT-3), became the third fully crewed Starship test mission. The previous two launches last year ended in an explosion before all the assigned tasks were completed. However, the data obtained during these launches helped SpaceX engineers prepare Starship for today's launch.
In the past year, improvements have been made between IFT-1 and IFT-2, including a new “hot stage” method, where the upper stage engines start firing before the first stage booster separation. Heavy. The IFT-2 hot staging maneuver was successful.
2 minutes 45 seconds after liftoff, the two Starship stages separated, sending the upper stage into orbit while Super Heavy began to change trajectory. However, the Super Heavy's engines did not perform as planned, resulting in the loss of the booster.
After separation from the first stage, Starship continued its flight in the suborbital phase to demonstrate two systems — restarting the Starship Raptor engines and transferring cryogenic fuel between tanks. Starship was expected to splash down in the Indian Ocean 65 minutes after launch.
Starship is designed to be reusable, SpaceX plans to reuse its heavy boosters, similar to the Falcon 9 rockets. Starship's mission is to land astronauts on the Moon as part of NASA's Artemis-3 mission. This mission is scheduled for 2026, so SpaceX has less than two years to meet NASA requirements. Towers will be installed on the Starship launch pad to receive the returning Super Heavy booster.