Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Image credit: SpaceX

SpaceX has posted an overview from the Starship integrated flight test that took place November 18 from the company’s Starbase in Texas.

The second flight provided invaluable data to continue rapidly developing Starship, explains the posting, with the vehicle achieving a number of major milestones:

Image credit: SpaceX/Inside Outer Space screengrab

— All 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy Booster started up successfully and, for the first time, completed a full-duration burn during ascent.

— Starship executed a successful hot-stage separation, powering down all but three of Super Heavy’s Raptor engines and successfully igniting the six second stage Raptor engines before separating the vehicles. This was the first time this technique has been done successfully with a vehicle of this size.

— Following separation, the Super Heavy booster successfully completed its flip maneuver and initiated the boostback burn before it experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly (RUD). The vehicle breakup occurred more than three and a half minutes into the flight at an altitude of roughly 55 miles (90 kilometers) over the Gulf of Mexico.

–Starship’s six second stage Raptor engines all started successfully and powered the vehicle to an altitude of approximately 93 miles (150 kilometers) and a velocity of roughly 24,000 kilometers/hour, “becoming the first Starship to reach outer space and nearly completing its full-duration burn.”

— The flight test’s conclusion came when telemetry was lost near the end of second stage burn prior to engine cutoff after more than eight minutes of flight. The team verified a safe command destruct was appropriately triggered based on available vehicle performance data.

Super Heavy Booster experiences RUD. Image credit: SpaceX/Inside Outer Space screengrab

— The water-cooled flame deflector and other pad upgrades performed as expected, requiring minimal post-launch work to be ready for upcoming vehicle tests and the next integrated flight test.

“Data review is ongoing as we look for improvements to make for the next flight,” the SpaceX posting adds. “The team at Starbase is already working final preparations on the vehicles slated for use in Starship’s third flight test, with Ship and Booster static fires coming up next.”

For SpaceX video of the Starship flight, go to:

 https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1dRKZEWQvrXxB

What? Me Worry
Image credit: Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson/Simon & Schuster

Image credit: SpaceX/Inside Outer Space screengrab