Today's third test flight of the super-heavy Starship launch vehicle (mission IFT-3) from SpaceX ended in partial success (more than the previous ones) – in fact, the team managed to “go further than ever before.” The launch was broadcast live on the SpaceX X/Twitter account.
Third test flight of Starship. How it was
The biggest achievement of this test flight was that the Starship prototype (S28) entered the desired low-Earth orbit for the first time, and then successfully left it, although it failed to splash down gently into the ocean. Given the results of today's test, SpaceX engineers have made quite a few changes to the design (“thousands of changes” according to Elon Musk) based on the results of the investigation into the explosive second attempt of IFT-2, when both stages exploded after separation due to a clogged filter and a liquid leak. oxygen. The first attempt at Starship's orbital flight in April 2023, we recall, ended in a controlled detonation after the stages failed to separate.
This time, the entire Starship flight lasted about 50 minutes (versus just over 8 minutes from the last test). It followed a slightly updated plan to accommodate the mission's objectives.
Starship in full configuration with Super Heavy (the height of the entire system exceeds 120 meters) launched from the site at Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, at 15:25 Kyiv time on March 14, 2024. By the way, this is the second successful start in a row without delays or postponements.
Start
The first stage worked perfectly until the final stage of splashdown. At approximately 2:49 after launch, the Starship super-heavy launch vehicle with all 33 accelerator engines (they worked all the time, none failed) reached an altitude of 72 km, where a successful separation occurred according to the “hot” scheme: most of the Super Heavy B10 accelerator engines turned off and at the same time the engines of the S28 ship started working.
Hot uncoupling of steps
This is the second time the Starship team has been able to demonstrate hot stage undocking. The first stage successfully completed the Boostback Burn maneuver (Falcon 9/Falcon Heavy stages return in the same way) and entered the landing trajectory, but in the last meters before splashing down into the ocean the team lost contact with the booster. Previously, not all of the engines performed as planned at this stage, so the booster was not able to brake sufficiently for a soft landing on the water in the Gulf of Mexico.
Drifting in space and testing the door
As for the Starship, after separation from the accelerator, it turned on all 6 engines and continued to climb along the planned trajectory – it reached an altitude of about 150 km, successfully entered low-Earth orbit with an apogee of about 235 km, and turned off the engines. Next, the spacecraft successfully tested the mechanism for opening and closing the payload compartment door (in the video below) and pumping cryogenic fuel from the small tank to the main one. After this (about 40 minutes after launch), the re-entry procedure began. And then the problems began: the ignition of the vacuum Raptors, which was supposed to be the first demonstration of their work, did not happen (for some reason the on-board computer did not execute the command).
In the end, Starship re-entered the atmosphere without compromising the integrity of the structure, maneuvering purely lattice rudders. In the video broadcast you can see how small fragments fly off from the ship during entry into the upper atmosphere. Quite a few heat protection tiles have also fallen off. At an altitude of about 65 km and a speed of 7.14 km/sec, communication with the ship was lost. Most likely, the autonomous safety system, after detecting deviations from the planned parameters, activated the flight abort system, which destroyed the ship somewhere over the Indian Ocean.
Finally, it remains to add that during this launch the SpaceX team also tested the operation of the cameras and stable Starlink communications, giving us many angles and incredibly beautiful shots from the Starship. Just look at a few seconds of video with plasma enveloping the spacecraft as it enters the atmosphere.
Reentry
What's next
SpaceX repeated several times that the main goal of this test (as, in principle, any other) is to collect important data to continue development. Therefore, the team will need some time to analyze in detail all the data collected, and figure out where adjustments need to be made so that at least one of the stages will make a soft landing next time. We hope that this time the investigation will take less time and SpaceX will quickly receive a regulatory license for the next test – it has already set up enough boosters and ships.
Hopefully, at least 6 more flights this year
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 12, 2024
Previously, SpaceX asked the FAA regulator for permission to at least 9 test launches of Starship before the end of the year. At the same time, Elon Musk, responding to Ars Technica space editor Eric Berger, expressed hope for at least 6 more Starship launches this year. Therefore, it is quite possible that Starship V2 will launch this year.
Recording the broadcast
Watch Starship’s third flight test → https://t.co/bJFjLCiTbK https://t.co/1u46r769Vp
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 14, 2024
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