Starship's ninth test flight
- SpaceX launched Starship on its ninth test flight, a crucial test mission after two previous failures.
- The flight started smoothly, but Starship encountered some issues in orbit. The first-stage Super Heavy booster exploded shortly before its expected splashdown, and fuel leaks on the upper-stage vehicle caused it to spin uncontrollably before its planned re-entry through Earth's atmosphere.
- SpaceX confirmed that Starship broke apart during re-entry. At the time, the vehicle was on track to splash down in the Indian Ocean.
- After the launch, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is expected to give a presentation from Texas about “the road to making life multiplanetary.”
Highs and lows of Starship's ninth flight
It's a bittersweet ending for Starship's ninth test flight.
The spacecraft made it through more milestones on this outing than it had so far this year, but issues cropped up in orbit that prevented several key tech demonstrations. We should learn more in the coming days and weeks as SpaceX investigates what went wrong.
Still, the overall outcome will be welcome good news for SpaceX after two previous tests failed less than 10 minutes after liftoff.
SpaceX loses contact with Starship
SpaceX officials confirmed that they lost contact with Starship a few minutes ago. It’s not yet known precisely where the vehicle broke up and landed.
That essentially ends today’s test flight.
“Still a lot of work to do, but really big moment,” Huot said on the livestream.
Live views ... for now
Camera views are intermittent at this point as Starship is spinning and as it starts to re-enter Earth's atmosphere. It's likely that the spacecraft will break apart soon, so it's also likely that we won't see much more from onboard Starship.
Starship to make an uncontrolled re-entry
SpaceX is preparing for Starship to make an uncontrolled re-entry by venting all of the remaining propellant onboard.
The vehicle is expected to come back within its planned re-entry zone, where aircraft and boats have been cleared out.
The spacecraft is likely to break up as it re-enters Earth's atmosphere, scattering debris over the Indian Ocean.
A smooth start, and then some trouble
After a smooth start to Starship's ninth test flight, we appear to have hit some snags.
Starship was unable to fully open its payload bay door, preventing it from deploying several simulated Starlink satellites. And about 30 minutes after liftoff, SpaceX confirmed a leak in Starship's fuel tank systems.
“We’ve been dealing with some leaks on the Ship,” SpaceX communications manager Dan Huot said on the livestream. “This is also what led to that loss of attitude control. So at this point, we are kind of in a spin.”
Huot confirmed that mission controllers are opting to skip a tech demo that involved Starship’s relighting one of its Raptor engines in orbit.
Starship is still expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere and land in the Indian Ocean, but it's unclear in what condition it will return.
“As we are not able to control the attitude of the ship as we get into entry, it will enter in whatever orientation it is in at the time, which does not bode well for the ship’s heat shield,” Huot said. “So it is definitely coming down. It is definitely heading to the Indian Ocean, but our chances of making it all the way down are pretty slim.”
Starship appears to be spinning
Starship appears to be in a spin, which means mission controllers can no longer control its attitude in orbit.
The spacecraft is still expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere, but it may burn up as a result of the loss of control.
“No matter what, we are going to enter. However, this lowers the chance of this as a controlled re-entry,” SpaceX communications manager Dan Huot said on the livestream.
What to watch for next
Mission controllers will try to relight one of Starship's Raptor engines in orbit as a tech demonstration before the vehicle tries to return to Earth.
Starship has already made it farther in this test flight than it had so far this year. That will be welcome news for SpaceX and Musk after two consecutive failed flights (one in January and the other in March) ended with the upper stage exploding less than 10 minutes after liftoff.
For today's re-entry attempt, SpaceX engineers removed metallic tiles from Starship to assess vulnerable areas on the vehicle as it makes the scorching journey through the atmosphere.
Starship's payload bay door won't fully open
Starship appears to have run into an issue with opening its payload bay door. Mission controllers have cut short that experiment without deploying the simulated Starlink satellites.
Booster goes boom
Among the mission objectives in today’s ninth starship test flight was to test the reuse the Starship’s super heavy booster for the first time.
Unlike in recent test flights, in which Super Heavy was caught in chopstick arms, today was a test of the SpaceX rapid reusability goals. But rather than return to Earth in the ocean, as intended, the Super Heavy exploded moments before splashdown, the livestream confirmed.
Big step forward
Today's flight is already a big step forward for SpaceX, getting farther than where both previous flights failed. In Starship's seventh flight in January and its eighth flight in March, mission controllers lost contact with the upper-stage vehicle less than 10 minutes after liftoff.
If all continues going to plan, the upper-stage vehicle will open its payload door and attempt to deploy simulated Starlink satellites.
