On March 14, 2024, SpaceX marked another historic milestone as its colossal Super Heavy-Starship rocket embarked on its third test flight. Launched under the watchful eyes of spectators and company officials, this towering behemoth, touted as the most potent rocket ever constructed, soared into the morning sky, propelled by a thunderous roar that echoed across the launch site.
In a display of technological prowess, the unpiloted upper stage of the Super Heavy-Starship rocket successfully ascended into the boundless expanse of space. As the mission unfolded, both stages of the rocket gracefully descended back to Earth, executing precise maneuvers for ocean splashdowns. Despite the eventual disintegration of the stages, SpaceX officials celebrated the flight as a monumental leap forward in their quest for space exploration.
Witnessing the SpaceX Starship’s Fiery Descent
The breathtaking journey was captured in real-time by a camera affixed to one of the Starship’s fins, offering viewers a front-row seat to the spectacle. Against the backdrop of the cosmos, the spacecraft re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere, heralded by the telltale crimson glow of re-entry heating.
With each passing moment, the intensity of the fiery descent grew, culminating in a dazzling inferno that enveloped the Starship in its radiant embrace. Remarkably, the insulation tiles lining its underbelly weathered temperatures exceeding a blistering 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, a testament to the engineering marvel that is SpaceX’s Super Heavy starship Rocket.
At an altitude of approximately 40 miles, telemetry abruptly ceased, indicating the Starship had disintegrated before completing its planned rocket-powered descent, destined for a destructive splashdown in the Indian Ocean. Nonetheless, traversing the journey from liftoff, through the vast expanse of space, and penetrating deeply into the Earth’s atmosphere to encounter peak heating was lauded by SpaceX as a significant achievement.
“Today has been a phenomenal day,” remarked a SpaceX commentator, reflecting the company’s sentiment despite the outcome.
However, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) classified the simultaneous loss of both stages as a “mishap” and announced its intention to lead an investigation into the incident.
The test flight commenced at 9:25 a.m. EDT, igniting the rocket’s colossal 33 Raptor engines. With each engine devouring a staggering 40,000 pounds of liquid oxygen and methane propellants per second, the ground reverberated with the thunderous roar of liftoff.
SpaceX’s Spectacular Launch and Splashdown Saga
Ascending into the sky, the towering 397-foot-tall rocket pierced through billowing clouds of dust and steam, generated by the fiery exhaust vaporizing torrents of water sprayed upward at the base of the pad to dampen the impact of engine ignition.
Smoothly gaining momentum and shedding weight as it consumed propellants, the Super Heavy-Starship gracefully arched eastward over the Gulf of Mexico. Thousands of onlookers, including residents, tourists, and journalists, were treated to a mesmerizing spectacle as the rocket soared overhead, accelerating through the speed of sound and ascending beyond the dense lower atmosphere, propelled by the concerted force of all 33 Raptors firing in unison.
Two minutes and 42 seconds after liftoff, the Raptors executed a controlled shutdown, followed swiftly by the ignition of the Starship upper stage’s six engines while still attached to the booster—a recent innovation dubbed “hot staging.” Moments later, the Super Heavy and Starship stages disengaged flawlessly.
As the Starship continued its ascent towards the cosmos, the booster initiated a maneuver, flipping around to commence its return journey towards the Earth’s surface for a splashdown. Initially, the descent proceeded according to plan, with the booster’s engines firing as required to decelerate its descent.
However, as it approached the Gulf and traversed through low cloud formations, the Super Heavy encountered challenges maintaining its orientation, resulting in wide oscillations. Subsequently, the spacecraft’s camera feeds were lost, and the booster descended to a “hard splashdown” without executing the planned engine firing designated as a landing burn.
Largest rocket ever built
The Super Heavy first stage alone stands 23 stories tall while the Starship upper stage, designed to carry cargo, passengers or both, towers another 164 feet and is equipped with six Raptor engines of its own.
The Super Heavy is designed to fly back to its launch pad, either in Boca Chica or at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, after boosting the Starship upper stage out of the lower atmosphere and then descend to touchdown, captured by two huge robotic arms on the launch gantry.
SpaceX Starships are designed to fly themselves to touchdowns anywhere landing pads are available as well as the moon and, eventually, Mars.
SpaceX launched the Super Heavy-Starship on its maiden flight last April 20, but the rocket suffered multiple engine failures or shutdowns. The rest continued firing after the expected shutdown time and the first and second stages failed to separate normally. The self-destruct system was triggered, but it took longer than expected to activate.
Visibly tumbling, the rocket blew itself up four minutes after liftoff. Maximum altitude was 24 miles.
In its second test flight last Nov. 18, the Super Heavy booster operated normally, the hot-staging procedure worked as planned and the Starship upper stage separated normally to continue the climb to space on the power of its six Raptor engines.
The Super Heavy, meanwhile, flipped around as expected and began flying back toward the Texas coast for splashdown. But moments after turning around, the rocket exploded in a shower of debris. The Starship stage flew itself to space as planned but just before or during engine shutdown, it, too, exploded.
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