Starship Reaches New Heights in 3rd Orbital Test On SpaceX’s 22nd Birthday: Videos
SpaceX today (March 14) launched the third orbital test flight of Starship from the company’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas. A prototype Starship upper stage and a Super Heavy rocket booster successfully performed a number of tests while in space, marking a key milestone in SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s dream to colonize Mars.
The giant two-stage spacecraft, weighing about 5,000 tons, made it much further into flight than during two previous tests in April and November 2023. The Starship upper stage also reached orbital velocity for the first time. The entire test lasted about 48 minutes. The November 2023 test lasted only eight minutes.
During the test, Starship completed a propellant transfer demonstration, moving fuel from one tank to another within the spacecraft. The test is a key component in Starship’s future use as a moon lander for NASA’s Artemis program. SpaceX also tested opening and closing a payload bay door on Starship, which would be used in future Starlink missions to deploy satellites. However, engineers will need to review data to determine if the payload door test was successful.
A webcast of the test showed views of Starship re-entering Earth’s atmosphere after coasting in space for a little bit. but SpaceX lost communication with the spacecraft earlier than expected.
“Starship will take humanity to Mars,” Musk posted on X after the test flight.
Today also marks the 22nd anniversary of SpaceX’s founding in El Segundo, Calif. The company’s chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell posted on X, congratulating the company’s engineering team for carrying out a successful test.
SpaceX has another mission later today to launch 23 Starlink satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center.
Starship will take humanity to Mars pic.twitter.com/BMBNI2mMKF
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 14, 2024
Happy birthday to @SpaceX! What a day!
HUGE congratulations to the entire team for this incredible day: clean count (glad the shrimpers could get out in the nick of time!), liftoff, hot staging, Super Heavy boost back and coast (and likely a couple engines making mainstage… pic.twitter.com/D3YUPIgKNH
— Gwynne Shotwell (@Gwynne_Shotwell) March 14, 2024
Key moments of Starship’s third orbital test:
Liftoff!
Liftoff of Starship! pic.twitter.com/FaNcasuKaq
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 14, 2024
Hot-staging separation:
Starship’s Raptor engines have ignited during hot-staging separation. Super Heavy is executing the flip maneuver pic.twitter.com/T593ACilyD
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 14, 2024
Coasting in space:
Starship is coasting in space pic.twitter.com/ZFUXMUkufW
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 14, 2024
Re-entering the atmosphere:
Starship re-entering Earth's atmosphere. Views through the plasma pic.twitter.com/HEQX4eEHWH
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 14, 2024