SpaceX’s Starship test flight on Saturday (Nov. 18) may have ended in an explosion, but the mission was not without some major successes. The mission aimed to send Starship’s 165-foot-tall upper stage most of the way around Earth, but the upper stage exploded about eight minutes after launch, following the same fate as the vehicle’s first stage, called Super Heavy.
However, there were a number of significant milestones achieved during the mission, including a smooth liftoff. All 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy Booster started up successfully and completed a full-duration burn during ascent. Additionally, the upper stage successfully separated from Super Heavy via a technique known as “hot staging.”
The upper stage’s six Raptors carried the vehicle to a maximum altitude of about 90 miles and a top speed of roughly 14,900 mph before telemetry was lost near the end of the second stage burn after more than eight minutes of flight. The team verified a safe command destruct was triggered based on available vehicle performance data.
Saturday’s test flight represents a marked improvement over the first Starship test flight that took place on April 20. During the first flight, a handful of Super Heavy’s Raptors failed early and the vehicle’s two stages did not separate as planned. SpaceX then intentionally detonated the tumbling vehicle about four minutes after liftoff.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is overseeing SpaceX’s investigation into what happened on Saturday. It is unclear when the assessment will conclude and when the FAA will award another launch license, but the company is already preparing for Starship’s third flight test with static fires for Ship and Booster slated for the next stage.
Despite the explosion, SpaceX is forging ahead with its plans for further tests and improvements to its Starship vehicle. The company hopes that the second test flight will provide valuable data to inform future iterations and ultimately achieve successful launches.