This week, SpaceX successfully completed the third launch of Starship's 10th test flight after two previous attempts were canceled due to adverse weather and technical issues.
Liftoff took place at 6:30 p.m. CT from Starbase, Texas, located near the Gulf of Mexico and approximately 20 miles east of Brownsville.
Approximately three minutes after liftoff, the booster separated from the main structure in a controlled rollover maneuver, after which the backup propulsion system was activated using three different power plant configurations.
The mission included a series of test engine firings during landing, testing the booster's payload deployment system, and experiments on returning the upper stage to the launch site for subsequent capture.
The company's engineers collected information about the performance of the super-heavy rocket during its flight along a trajectory that ended with a dive into the waters of the Gulf instead of the planned landing on the launch pad.
To test the backup systems, specialists turned off one of the booster's three engines during the landing impulse.
In the final landing phase, only the two central power plants were used, ensuring a complete hover above the water surface before final shutdown.
Seven minutes after launch, the booster made a controlled splashdown.
The second stage engines stopped working nine minutes into the flight, ensuring the spacecraft entered its calculated orbital trajectory.
At 19 minutes into the mission, the spacecraft's upper stage began separating eight Starlink satellite mockups in stages, with about a minute between each.
The imitation devices were destroyed when passing through the dense layers of the earth's atmosphere.
After completing the separation of the mock-ups, engineers performed a test firing of the Raptor engine in orbit before beginning the atmospheric reentry procedure.
The company said the tests demonstrated the ability to use propulsion systems during orbital operations for out-of-orbit maneuvers and subsequent re-entry.
A successful engine restart occurred 38 minutes after liftoff, and two minutes later Starship began re-entering the atmosphere.
This stage allowed testing of new elements of the spacecraft's thermal protection before its landing in the Indian Ocean, where the craft slowed from five times the speed of sound during intensive atmospheric tests.
Parts of the heat-protective coating were specially removed from individual sections of the ship, including the area where one of the engines was located, to study the reaction of the structure.
During atmospheric entry, the protective skirt was partially damaged, but the ship continued to descend, using two Raptor engines to reduce speed to subsonic values.
One hour and seven minutes after launch, the craft flipped over and fell into the ocean, presumably causing an explosion upon contact with the surface.
SpaceX's Starship remains the largest existing rocket system designed to support future Mars missions.
Previous launches were cancelled due to technical difficulties on Sunday and thunderstorms on Monday that created a risk of lightning strikes to the structure.
The ninth test flight in June ended in an accident with the launch complex being completely destroyed when the rocket exploded during pre-launch preparation.
In the March incident on the eighth flight, contact with the vehicle was lost shortly after liftoff, while the seventh test ended with the launch vehicle exploding almost immediately after launch.
Sourse: www.upi.com
