SpaceX Successfully Launches it’s Starship Rocket After Series of High-Profile Setbacks

SpaceX has successfully launched it’s Starship rocket after a series of high-profile setbacks. The world’s most powerful rocket made significant progress during its tenth test flight on Tuesday (August 26). When the launch window of Starbase, the launch site in South Texas, opened at 6:30 pm, the 403-foot-tall rocket took off.

The rocket slowly moved into the air and successfully separated from its Super Heavy Booster. It achieved its desired suborbital trajectory and deployed eight dummy satellites after opening up like a PEZ dispenser. Meanwhile, the Super Heavy Booster re-entered Earth and splashed down in the Atlantic.

The Starship continued to orbit the planet, passing through the day and night in Texas before splashing on the Ocean’s surface an hour after its launch. It entered the Indian Ocean after firing the craft engines and flipping its position into an upright style with its nose cone pointing upwards.

However, the Starship doppled over and exploded into a giant fireball. According to the SpaceX executives, it was an expected demise for the 171-foot-tall ship. The ship might have been triggered by its flight termination system, the executives added. The only issue that occurred in this launch was that the ship’s skirt broke apart on its way back into the atmosphere, sending debris into space.

“This was absolutely incredible. A huge congrats to all the teams here, Amanda Lee, SpaceX Build Reliability Engineer”, said during the live launch commentary.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk also celebrated the successful launch of its Starship and wrote on X (formerly Twitter), congratulating the team.

“Great work by the SpaceX team”, he wrote.

Series of High-Profile Setbacks

SpaceX faced a series of failures between January and June that ended in disaster. Earlier this year, the ship exploded mid-air minutes after liftoff. In May, the spacecraft broke apart due to a catastrophic failure. In June, a giant ball of fire caused mayhem during a static fire test at the Starbase test site.

After a series of high-profile setbacks, SpaceX focused on redesigning the Super Heavy booster with stronger and larger fins for greater stability. The executives said every failed attempt helped them improve and do better.

“We probably gave it a little bit of extra time in the oven, but made it all the way through re-entry. We promised maximum excitement, Starship delivered”, Dan Hout, SpaceX spokesman, said during the live streaming on Tuesday.

However, SpaceX has a long way to go before it carries humans to space aboard Starship. For the mission, the company might get approval from NASA by certifying the Starship and the Super Heavy booster during its human rating process.

“[It] is a critical certification process that validates the safety, reliability, and suitability of space systems—including orbiters, launch vehicles, rovers, spacesuits, habitats, and other crewed elements—for human use and interaction”, NASA stated.

To get the approval, the firm must prove that Starship and its Super Heavy booster can “tolerate failures, provide life-sustaining environments, and offer the crew sufficient control and situational awareness”. They must be safe enough to meet NASA’s goal of keeping the loss of a crew to one in 500 during launches and landings.