On August 14th at 08:25 CT (21:25 UTC), SpaceX attempted the third flight test of their next-generation Starship heavy lift rocket.
The rocket's launch from the Boca Chica, Texas, facility appeared nominal, with SpaceX founder Elon Musk posting on social media to declare the Starship had "achieved orbit-like speed."
However, the third flight test ended prematurely as the vehicle lost signal with ground controllers for nearly 14 minutes during the re-entry phase. With such a high-profile attempt, the question remains: was it a success or a failure?
Developed by SpaceX, Starship is a colossal super-heavy launch vehicle comprised of a reusable first-stage Super Heavy booster and a reusable second-stage Starship spacecraft, collectively known as "Starship-Super Heavy" or simply "Starship."
What sets Starship apart is its sheer size and unparalleled thrust, making it the largest and most powerful rocket ever developed globally. Constructed entirely of welded stainless steel, Starship resembles a massive cylindrical tower, boasting a diameter of 9 meters.
Towering at 121 meters, Starship matches the height of a 40-story skyscraper, with a liftoff mass of approximately 5,000 tons—equivalent to the displacement of a small destroyer. This liftoff mass dwarfs predecessors like the Saturn V (1.6 times heavier), the N1 rocket (1.8 times), the SLS (1.9 times), the Energia (2.1 times), the Space Shuttle (2.5 times), and the Long March 5 (5.7 times).
To propel this colossal entity into space, the Super Heavy booster employs a staggering array of 33 Raptor liquid rocket engines, generating a combined thrust of nearly 7,600 tons—enough to lift the Eiffel Tower off the ground. These engines burn a combination of liquid oxygen and methane, achieving a specific impulse of 327 seconds.
Arranged in two rings at the base of the booster, 20 engines are fixed in place as outer engines, while the inner 13 can swivel 15 degrees in either direction for thrust vector control, additionally capable of adjusting thrust between 20% and 100%.
Starbase Launch Tower 3 Perspective, All 33 First Stage Engines Firing at Liftoff
02 Great news, it didn't explode this time! Bad news, it might have failed...again?
For this test flight, SpaceX pulled out all the stops, launching on March 14, 2024, the 22nd anniversary of SpaceX's founding. Compared to the two previous test flights in April and November 2023, was this third "rapid unscheduled disassembly" a failure?
Well, that depends on what SpaceX set out to do. In this mission, the Super Heavy booster, designated B10, fired normally at liftoff and all of its Raptor engines ignited successfully, staying lit throughout the ascent.
At the end of first stage, Starship successfully performed a heat-separation event between the Super Heavy and the Starship vehicle, designated S28, by shutting down the majority of the Raptors on the Super Heavy and lighting the six engines on Starship.
After separation, the Super Heavy successfully performed a flip maneuver and conducted a full-duration reentry burn, guiding the booster toward its planned landing site in the Gulf of Mexico. Starship's six engines continued to burn for 351 seconds, placing Starship into its intended orbit with a perigee altitude of just 50 kilometers, successfully completing the entry, descent, and landing phases for the first time.
During the orbital insertion phase, Starship also successfully performed a payload bay door-opening test and a propellant transfer test, demonstrating that it had successfully completed all the steps from launch to orbit.
The Starship's Super Heavy booster only managed to fire three of its engines during its attempted landing burn, and two of those engines cut out shortly after.
This caused the booster to lose control and it subsequently broke up at roughly 462 meters above the surface. The Starship also experienced control issues during the final part of its orbital insertion burn, with excessive roll rates preventing the planned single Raptor relight in orbit.
Starship managed to survive reentry, with telemetry showing signs of glowing hot as it approached Earth. The last signal was received via Starlink around the 49-minute mark, after which it presumably broke up in the atmosphere.
The test flight was a historic success in terms of proving the overall launch-to-orbit capabilities of Starship, but it fell well short of a fully reusable return and landing. As such, the post-flight assessment published by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ruled the launch attempt a "failure" under its four-tier rating system and has asked SpaceX to investigate.
SpaceX's Starship concept was first outlined by Musk in 2012, with the aim of creating a fully reusable two-stage rocket system to carry humans to Mars by the 2030s. After various design and name changes, it has evolved into the current "Super Heavy-Starship" configuration.
Starship was designed from the outset to be fully reusable, with the Super Heavy booster returning to land at the launchpad and the Starship itself returning from Earth orbit to land vertically on a prepared landing pad. Starship's payload capacity to low Earth orbit (LEO) is targeted at 150 tons, increasing to 250 tons if it is not reused. Starship is also designed to be refueled in LEO, allowing it to travel to more distant destinations such as geosynchronous orbit, the Moon, and Mars.
Due to SpaceX's proven track record and the huge potential of Starship, the project has received significant support from both the US government and military. NASA has invested up to $4 billion in Starship, and is hoping to use it for its Artemis program to return humans to the Moon.
According to the latest schedule, the Artemis-3 crewed lunar landing mission is scheduled to launch no earlier than September 2026, so every step forward for Starship is crucial to the future of US lunar exploration and the longer-term goal of human settlement on Mars.
Despite the considerable progress made during its three test flights so far, Starship is still a long way from being ready for this role. To support the eventual goal, Starship will need to be capable of routine, frequent flights, since both lunar and Mars missions will require multiple Starship launches and in-orbit propellant transfer.
To that end, SpaceX is playing to its strengths of rapid manufacturing and rapid iteration. The company has already applied to the FAA for permission to conduct at least nine Starship launches this year.
Raptor engine production is now running at a rate of seven per week, and Starship prototypes are being built at a rate of one every two to three weeks. A second Starship launchpad is also under construction next to the existing one. Based on SpaceX's track record, it is certainly possible that Starship will eventually be ready in time to support the US lunar and even Mars ambitions.
Reusable rockets like Starship are the inevitable future of space transportation, as space technology advances and the demands on space transportation increase.
Although Starship is not yet ready, the sheer speed of its progress as demonstrated by its first three test flights has stunned the world. Challenges that were previously thought to be insurmountable, such as operating dozens of large, powerful rocket engines simultaneously, have already been proven feasible twice.
Good competitors are not enemies, but rather the best of friends. Spurred on by the formidable competition from SpaceX, Chinese space launch companies are also focusing on developing and mastering reusability.
China has reportedly accomplished a vertical landing and hovering test with a reusable rocket, marking a breakthrough in key technologies for reusable rockets.
Several private companies have also initiated demonstrations and validations of various levels of reusability technologies.
At this year's Two Sessions, it was reported that China is actively developing 4-meter and 5-meter reusable rockets, scheduled for maiden flights in 2025 and 2026, respectively.
Space exploration is a gradual process, with each advancement marking a significant milestone.
China recognizes the commercial space sector as a new growth engine and believes that a competitive market environment will mobilize high-quality resources to meet the challenges of technological revolution and contribute to the rapid growth and development of China's space industry.
