The thirteenth check flight of SpaceX’s Starship megarocket went fairly properly — and supplied some superb visuals, too.
Flight 13 launched on Friday (July 24), sending the 408-foot-tall (124 meters) Starship Model 3 (V3) automobile aloft from SpaceX’s Starbase website in South Texas.
Starship’s Tremendous Heavy booster had some engine points on its means again to Earth. However the Ship higher stage hit all of its marks, efficiently deploying 20 next-gen Starlink satellites, re-igniting certainly one of its Raptor engines in area as deliberate and splashing down softly off the coast of Western Australia. So softly, actually, that Ship did not explode after hitting the water — a primary for a Starship flight.
SpaceX shared these milestones with us in actual time, by way of the corporate’s Flight 13 launch webcast. And the corporate highlighted a number of of them after the actual fact as properly, with some gorgeous imagery printed on its X account.
One Friday post, for instance, reveals footage from Tremendous Heavy of Ship cruising away shortly after stage separation, its six Raptors glowing with exertion in opposition to the backdrop of a gorgeously blue Earth.
Another Friday X post gives a Ship’s-eye view of the automobile’s descent towards the Indian Ocean, steering its means from sky to sea. The video switches over to drone footage simply earlier than Ship hits the water, capturing from above the dramatic splashdown — and Ship’s survival, regardless of the outbreak of a sizeable hearth round its nostril.
Each Ship and Tremendous Heavy are designed to be totally and quickly reusable. Ultimately, each automobiles will return to the launch website shortly after liftoff, for seize with their launch tower’s “chopstick” arms, refurbishment and reflight.
SpaceX has already caught Tremendous Heavy on three Starship check flights and can attempt to do the identical with Ship for the primary time on Flight 14, supplied no purple flags emerge throughout Flight 13 knowledge overview, according to SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk.
Starship performed its first check flight in April 2023. Flight 13 was the second launch Model 3 of the automobile, the primary iteration of the automobile that is designed to be operational.
SpaceX is working arduous to get the large rocket up and working quickly. Starship is slated to fly on NASA’s Artemis III astronaut mission to Earth orbit subsequent summer season and to land astronauts close to the moon’s south pole on Artemis IV in late 2028.
