SpaceX success! Elon’s $3bn rocket performs its first successful test flight in orbit – as Musk moves one step closer to sending NASA astronauts back to the moon

Third time proved to be a charm for Elon Musk’s next-gen Starship this morning as the rocket successfully performed many historic objectives during its orbital flight test, after two trials last year ended quickly in abrupt aerial fireballs.

The two-stage craft, consisting of the Starship cruise vessel mounted atop its towering Super Heavy rocket booster, achieved liftoff from SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas, flight test facility on the Gulf Coast at 9:25am ET.

Scored to the rapturous cheering of SpaceX mission control, the craft ascended in a gleaming orange fury of fire and smoke: a blast off captured via numerous livestream cameras on and off Starship. 

The upper Starship stage reached an altitude of about 145 miles above the surface and topped speeds of around 15,000 miles per hour as it soared into orbit, capturing stunning views of space and the curvature of Earth.

But SpaceX later revealed the craft was destroyed during atmospheric re-entry.

‘The team has made the call that the ship has been lost, so no splashdown today,’ said Dan Huot, SpaceX communications manager, during the live broadcast. 

‘But again, just it’s incredible to see how much further we got this time around.’ 

The two-stage Starship, taller than the Statue of Liberty, achieved liftoff from SpaceX ‘s Boca Chica, Texas , flight test facility on the Gulf Coast at 9:25am ET

The upper Starship stage reached an altitude of about 145 miles above the surface and topped speeds of around 15,000 miles per hour as it soared into orbit, capturing stunning views of space and the curvature of Earth

The most powerful and largest launch vehicle ever constructed, Starship achieved one key first goal: successful separation from its Super Heavy booster.

While the booster, dubbed Booster 10, feel back to Earth and crashed into the Gulf of Mexico as planned, only a few engines were still firing – and how it impacted the water is unclear.

However, a failed separation is what forced SpaceX to pull the kill switch during its first attempt, which saw Starship explode mid-air. 

And, despite successfully forming a ‘plasma blanket’ of heated atmosphere amid its air-drag assisted descent, Starship’s also reusable ‘Ship 28’ failed to make a safe splashdown into the Indian Ocean, although it did complete its orbital flight path. 

In-person spectators watched live all morning through the dawn’s foggy haze near SpaceX’s coastline Texas facility, while the space company’s staff appeared to cover their eyes nervously inside mission control during the high stakes launch. 

Online, spectators witnessed the craft’s own perspective as it blazed past Earth’s upper atmosphere into the historic orbital phase of its mission. 

SpaceX’s Starship reached orbit! (Above, a glimpse of its on ship livestream.) The most powerful and, to date, one of the largest launch vehicles ever constructed, Starship’s mission achieved its first goal of a soft splashdown for its reusable ‘Booster 10’ in the Gulf of Mexico

Above, SpaceX’s third orbital test of its Starship spacecraft during Thursday’s liftoff 

Starship is powered by cryogenically frozen methane and liquid oxygen fuel

In-person spectators have watched live all morning through the foggy haze near SpaceX ‘s coastline Texas facility, some (pictured above) tailgating since the more sunny conditions on Wednesday near SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas, flight test facility along the Gulf

The craft’s Super Heavy booster had been engineered to land in a fashion similar to SpaceX’s smaller Falcon 9 rockets — in the case of today’s launch with the goal of achieving a soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.

Starship ‘Ship 28’ itself had been designed to return from space by coasting in a drag-heavy ‘belly-flop’ through the atmosphere, using air friction to reduce its speed, before reorienting into a vertical ‘dive’ position for a safe plunge in the Indian Ocean.

On the SpaceX livefeed, viewers witnessed a pink-fuchsia plasma of heated air develop around Starship as heat-friction escalated during the craft’s descent.

Typically, this ‘plasma blanket’ effect has acted as a barrier to transmissions between Starship and Musk’s Starlink satellites, which relay live video, telemetry data and other key signals to Earth.

But for several stunning moments — intermittently fuzzed by digital static — the livefeed offered up images of a glowing halo around the craft akin to aurora borealis, or ‘the northern lights.’

On the SpaceX livefeed, viewers witnessed a pink-fuchsia plasma of heated air develop around Starship as heat-friction escalated during the craft’s ultimately unsuccessful descent

Typically, this ‘plasma blanket’ effect has acted as a barrier to transmissions between Starship and Musk’s Starlink satellites, which relay live video, telemetry data and other key signals to Earth. But for several stunning moments, the feed offered up a glowing halo around the craft

Reusability means that all of the expensive, painstakingly crafted hardware on the SpaceX craft, including its booster’s 33 Raptor full-flow staged combustion cycle (FFSC) engines and Starship’s own six Raptors, won’t just become ocean litter.  

This efficient design hopes to cut down the cost of launching payloads into orbit, hitting a price of about $10 million to take 100 tons of material — and one-day NASA personnel — into space, to the moon and, if all goes well, Mars.

Early in the test, all 33 of the booster’s Raptor FFSC engines could be seen gleaming successfully in their hot stage burn, fully functioning as the craft rocketed into orbit. 

Early in the test, all 33 of the booster’s Raptor FFSC engines could be seen gleaming successfully in their hot stage burn, fully functioning as the craft rocketed into orbit 

Above, Starship’s Super Heavy booster as it began its planned separation from the craft. The booster has been engineered to land in a fashion similar to SpaceX’s smaller Falcon 9 rockets

But the feed cut out before the that booster, ‘Booster 10,’ could make its planned splashdown into the Gulf of Mexico, leaving that reusable rocket’s fate unclear

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) cleared SpaceX for its third Starship flight on Wednesday morning.

‘The FAA determined SpaceX met all safety, environmental, policy and financial responsibility requirements,’ the agency said in a statement.

The FAA’s ‘tiered environmental assessment’ focused on the environmental impact of Starship’s reentry and water landing in the Indian Ocean. 

SpaceX says it has ‘significantly expanded’ Starship’s fire suppression systems and improved the autonomous systems that should have triggered the destruct command sooner during the rocket’s previous launch failures. 

Starship’s first and failed test flight on April 20, 2023 — written as 4/20 in America, an internet meme and a reference to cannabis culture Musk enjoys alluding to — saw the rocket explode just 25 miles into the sky after its booster failed to detach.

Today’s Starship launch during its successful early phases

The craft’s reusability means that all of the space-faring vessel’s expensive, painstakingly crafted hardware, including the booster’s 33 Raptor full-flow staged combustion cycle engines and Starship’s own six Raptor engines, won’t just become wasted ocean litter

Although it’s unclear what Starship’s targeted altitude is, today’s flight aims to reach the sort of speeds needed to get a vehicle into orbit: approximately 17,500 miles per hour. Ahead of the launch, Musk posted to his X platform: ‘Starship launch attempt in ~5 hours. Let’s get to Mars’

SpaceX’s Starship and its unique, reusable Super Heavy booster (above) as fueling began Thursday of the rocket’s cryogenically cold, pressurized methane and liquid oxygen fuel

Starship (above, Thursday), shrouded in a drifting bank of fog, began its launch window at 8am Eastern (1200 GMT). The FAA cleared SpaceX for its third Starship flight on Wednesday,  saying it ‘met all safety, environmental, policy and financial responsibility requirements’

Elon Musk’s next-gen Starship (seen above on the launchpad Wednesday) launched Thursday morning; the 400-foot tall, reusable rocket achieved major milestones in its third orbital test

SpaceX was forced to manually kill that first test flight four minutes in, as the rocket began spinning dangerously out of control. 

It crashed in the Gulf of Mexico, throwing up a dust cloud over a town several miles away.

Outside of the FAA’s recommendations, SpaceX also stated that it has added a ‘hot stage’ separation system linking Starship to the Super Heavy Booster, and reinforced the launchpad with flame deflectors. 

Starship is key to SpaceX’s future of providing reusable, affordable space transportation.

Unlike the Saturn V rocket which took astronauts to the moon, the SpaceX version — boosters and all — is designed to be completely reusable after returning to Earth in an effort to reduce costs.

NASA is banking on Musk’s firm coming through with rockets that will help it get humans to the moon and someday Mars ahead of China in the modern day space race. The clock is ticking for a modified Starship to be ready for a planned lunar landing in 2025.

Alongside NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) it will ferry astronauts to the moon, so long as all things go to plan. 

SpaceX itself is already heavily involved in the astro business, sending supplies and crew to the International Space Station and bringing astronauts back to Earth.