Elon Musk and the entire SpaceX entourage shake hands and congratulate themselves on the second test launch of the Starship, the spacecraft that aims to take us to Mars in the future. However, some things did not go as expected. Part of the majestic machine exploded in space, an issue that makes engineers return to the laboratory to continue making adjustments.
This second launch of 2023 is much more successful than the one carried out on April 20. At that time the spaceship exploded as soon as it took off before the eyes of thousands of people who were watching it live.
In this case at least the ship managed to overcome the Kárman line, which is the limit between the atmosphere and outer space. The spacecraft achieved an ascent of 150 kilometers at an astonishing speed of 24,000 kilometers per hour. “It was a huge step forward for space exploration. “We are very happy with the result,” said Elon Musk.
For the mission to have been a complete success, they must have achieved a 90-minute flight with a controlled return to Earth. The Super Heavy booster, which is the lower stage of the rocket, exploded shortly after the Starship spacecraft separated from it. The cause of the explosion has not yet been determined, but SpaceX is investigating the incident.
“What we do believe now is that the automated flight termination system on the second stage appears to have been activated very late in the burn, when we were heading towards the Gulf of Mexico,” explained John Insprucker, SpaceX’s principal integration engineer, according to review of the ABC Newspaper.
Starship successfully lifted off under the power of the Super Heavy Booster’s 33 Raptor engines and successfully completed a stage separation. The booster underwent rapid unscheduled disassembly following its booster firing following successful stage separation.
While Starship’s Raptor 6 second stage engines ignited for several minutes as the ship ascended to an altitude of 150 kilometers, he noted SpaceX in a statement he released shortly after the launch.