Latest news with #SuperHeavy-Starship
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
SpaceX launching Super Heavy-Starship test flight after 2 mishaps
With Federal Aviation Administration approval, SpaceX readied a gargantuan 400-foot-tall Super Heavy-Starship for its 9th test flight Tuesday — a launch featuring multiple upgrades in the wake of spectacular back-to-back upper stage failures during the previous two flights in January and March. Company founder Elon Musk planned to provide a post-launch update on his long-range plans to "make life multi-planetary," presumably outlining the role the Super Heavy-Starship will play in eventual flights to Mars. He originally planned to speak before the latest launch but decided, without explanation, to hold it up until after the flight. The huge rocket's launching, known as "Integrated Flight Test 9," was targeted for liftoff at 7:30 p.m. EDT from SpaceX's sprawling Boca Chica, Texas, manufacturing-and-flight facility, known as Starbase, on the Texas Gulf Coast. Plans for the latest SpaceX test flight The mission featured the first use of a previously flown 23-story-tall Super Heavy first stage, which flew itself back to capture by giant mechanical arms on the launch tower during the program's seventh test flight in January. For the program's latest launch, the Super Heavy first stage, powered by 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines generating up to 16 million pounds of thrust, will follow the same flight plan as previous missions, propelling the Starship upper stage out of the thick lower atmosphere on an easterly trajectory toward the Straits of Florida. Equipped with six Raptors of its own, the 160-foot-long Starship was expected to separate from its booster about two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff, heading for a sub-orbital trajectory carrying it toward a planned vertical splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The Super Heavy, meanwhile, will use a different method for flipping around for the trip back to the launch site in a bid to save propellants. It also was programmed to fly a much steeper descent than usual to learn more about the stresses it can safely endure. "The booster will attempt to fly at a higher angle of attack during its descent," SpaceX said on its website. "By increasing the amount of atmospheric drag on the vehicle, a higher angle of attack can result in a lower descent speed which in turn requires less propellant for the initial landing burn. "Getting real-world data on how the booster is able to control its flight at this higher angle of attack will contribute to improved performance on future vehicles, including the next generation of Super Heavy." As a result of the high-stress tests, the booster will guide itself to splashdown in the Gulf instead of attempting a launch pad capture where critical infrastructure could be damaged in a landing mishap. The Starship will attempt a repeat of the missions planned for the previous two flights, both of which failed before they could reach their planned trajectories. Eight dummy Starlink internet satellites will be released to test the deployment system, a single Raptor engine will be reignited to test its start-up capability in space, multiple heat-shield tiles have been removed to "stress test" vulnerable areas and launch pad capture fittings are in place to learn how they stand up to the space environment. Launch attempt follows two Starship breakups Tuesday's planned launching comes on the heels of back-to-back Starship upper stage breakups during the two previous test flights that generated spectacular showers of flaming debris along the flight paths. Since then, SpaceX engineers carried out extensive testing and implemented multiple upgrades and improvements to minimize the chances for similar failures. The Federal Aviation Administration, which oversaw both failure investigations, gave SpaceX permission to proceed with IFT-9 last week after wrapping up the IFT-8 review. "The FAA conducted a comprehensive safety review of the SpaceX Starship Flight 8 mishap and determined that the company has satisfactorily addressed the causes of the mishap, and therefore, the Starship vehicle can return to flight," the agency said in a statement. "The FAA will verify SpaceX implements all corrective actions." In both of the previous failures, commercial airline traffic in and around the Straits of Florida was held up pending confirmation falling debris was no longer a threat. For the ninth flight, the length of the Aircraft Hazard Area was expanded from about 1,000 statute miles to around 1,840 miles and SpaceX was required to launch the rocket during non-peak air travel periods. Plans for the moon and Mars The Super Heavy-Starship rocket is critical to NASA's plans to land astronauts on the moon in the next few years and to Musk's plans to eventually send humans to Mars. NASA plans to use a variant of the Starship upper stage as a lunar lander in the agency's Artemis program. NASA wants to use its own rocket and crew capsule to ferry astronauts to lunar orbit where the SpaceX lander will be waiting to carry them down to the surface. The Trump administration wants to cancel NASA's Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule, leaving the future of the Artemis program, as it's currently envisioned, in doubt. For his part, Musk has argued the United States should pass up moon missions, which he called a "distraction," and instead head directly to Mars. In any case, the Super Heavy-Starship rocket is expected to play a major role in future deep space exploration, regardless of the target. But multiple successful test flights will be needed to demonstrate the safety and reliability needed for astronauts and passengers heading to the moon, Mars or beyond. SpaceX made changes after two catastrophic explosions The last two Starships, launched Jan. 16 and March 6, both ended with unrelated catastrophic explosions as they neared their planned sub-orbital trajectories. During the January flight, a propellant leak in an unpressurized "attic" above the Raptor engines led to sustained fires that eventually triggered shutdown of all but one of the spacecraft's engines. Telemetry was lost eight minutes and 20 seconds after launch and moments later, the vehicle broke apart. "The most probable root cause for the loss of ship was identified as a harmonic response several times stronger in flight than had been seen during testing, which led to increased stress on hardware in the propulsion system," SpaceX said on its website. "The subsequent propellant leaks exceeded the venting capability of the ship's attic area and resulted in sustained fires." After extensive ground tests, SpaceX made changes to propellant feedlines, and thrust levels and installed additional vents and a new nitrogen purge system in the attic to reduce the potential for fire. Those fixes appeared to work as expected during the Starship's eighth test flight in March, but the upper stage again suffered a catastrophic failure. This time around, the Starship suffered a "hardware failure in one of the upper stage Raptor engines that resulted in inadvertent propellant mixing and ignition," SpaceX said on its website. To fix the problem, upper stage Raptors now feature a new nitrogen purge system, improvements to the propellant drain system and tighter joints in key areas. SpaceX is also developing an improved Raptor engine that will eliminate several failure modes. 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Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
SpaceX Starship breaks apart after launch in second failure in a row
SpaceX launched its huge Starship rocket on the program's eighth test flight Thursday, but a malfunction of some sort triggered multiple upper stage engine shutdowns and the vehicle failed to reach its planned sub-orbital altitude, breaking apart in a spectacular shower of debris. It was the second failure in a row for a Starship upper stage, a vehicle critical to NASA's plans to return astronauts to the moon in the next few years. "Obviously, a lot to go through, a lot to dig through. We're going to go right at it," said SpaceX launch commentator Dan Huot. "The primary reason we do these flight tests is to learn. We have some more to learn about this vehicle, but we're going to be right back here in the not-too-distant future, and we're going to get a ship to space." Added commentator Kate Tice: "We fly to learn, and we're learning a lot. As is the case with developmental programs such as the Starship program, progress isn't always linear." Flights at several Florida airports were temporarily grounded due to the risk of falling debris. Ground stops have now been lifted, but the FAA reported Miami International Airport and Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport both had departure delays of about 45 minutes, with the cause listed as "space launch debris." Flights at Palm Beach International Airport and Orlando International Airport were also affected. SpaceX said in a statement that after the Starship experienced what it called "a rapid unscheduled disassembly," the company "immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses." Launch began according to plan Three days after a last-minute scrub due to unspecified technical issues, SpaceX fired up the Super Heavy first stage's 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines at 6:30 p.m. EST. Two seconds later, the tallest, most powerful rocket in the world lifted off from the company's launch site on the Texas Gulf Coast. Capable of generating up to 16 million pounds of thrust — more than twice the power as NASA's Saturn 5 moon rocket — the Super Heavy-Starship arced away to the east atop of long jet of bluish flame. After boosting the Starship upper stage out of the dense lower atmosphere, the 230-foot-tall, 30-foot-wide Super Heavy first stage booster flew itself back to the launch site and into the grasp of two giant mechanical arms known as "chopsticks" mounted on the side of the launch tower. The chopsticks closed around the slowly descending booster, locking onto structural capture fixtures on both sides of the rocket. The dramatic launch pad capture, SpaceX's third, is a key element in the company's plan to enable rapid refurbishment and reuse. The 160-foot-tall Starship upper stage, meanwhile, climbed toward space as planned on the power of six Raptor engines, appearing to work flawlessly as it soared skyward toward the planned sub-orbital trajectory. Trouble 8 minutes after liftoff But a little more than eight minutes after liftoff, telemetry shown on SpaceX's live webcast indicated four of the six engines had prematurely shut down. A camera on the Starship showed the spacecraft starting to spin about and several seconds later contact was lost. Multiple videos posted on YouTube showed a dramatic shower of debris arcing back toward Earth after the vehicle broke up. It wasn't immediately clear if the breakup was triggered by the Starship's self-destruct system or by extreme structural loads as it fell back into the lower atmosphere. While SpaceX will no doubt attempt its usual rapid recovery, the Federal Aviation Administration will almost certainly order another failure investigation. Given two destructive breakups in a row, it could take longer to return to flight status this time around. The flight plan called for a battery of tests, including the deployment of four simulated Starlink satellites to test the Starship's payload release system, the in-space restart of one of the rocket's Raptor engines and tests of new heat shield materials and components needed for the eventual pad capture of returning Starships. At the conclusion of the sub-orbital flight, the Starship was expected fall back into the atmosphere belly first. Once past the region of maximum atmospheric heating, the rocket was programmed to flip into a vertical orientation before settling to a tail-first rocket-powered "soft landing" in the Indian Ocean near Australia. But it was not to be. January launch ended in self-destruct During the program's seventh integrated flight test, or IFT, in January, a fire developed just above the Super Heavy first stage engines and contact was lost eight minutes and 20 seconds after launch. Three minutes after that, the rocket's self-destruct system triggered an explosion that broke the Starship apart, producing a spectacular shower of flaming debris that rained down along the flight path. Telemetry indicated the fire broke out after propellant lines leading to one of the Raptors ruptured due to unexpected harmonic vibrations. SpaceX carried out a 60-second engine test firing of the Starship launched Monday, studying responses to various thrust levels. Based on the test results, propellant feed lines were modified, fuel temperatures were changed and thrust levels were adjusted to avoid any such harmonic responses. Additional vents were installed in the area where the fire broke out and a nitrogen purge system was added to minimize the chance of fire. It was not immediately known what went wrong Thursday. Starship program aiming for the moon Working the bugs out of the Super Heavy-Starship is critical to both SpaceX and NASA. SpaceX is under contract to NASA to supply a modified Starship to carry astronauts to landings near the moon's south pole in the agency's Artemis program. To get a Starship lander to the moon, SpaceX must first get it into low-Earth orbit, then launch multiple Super Heavy-Starship "tankers" to refuel the moon-bound Starship for the trip to lunar orbit. The astronauts will launch atop NASA's Space Launch System rocket and fly to the moon aboard a Lockheed Martin-built Orion capsule. The crew will transfer to the waiting Starship for the descent to the lunar surface. NASA hopes to send the first woman and the next man to the moon in the 2027-28 timeframe, after an unpiloted Starship moon landing. Rapid reusability is a key element of the program given the number of Super Heavy-Starships that will be required for a single moon landing. Multiple successful test flights will be needed to perfect the system and demonstrate the reliability required to carry astronauts. The latest mishap comes amid ambitious SpaceX plans for major upgrades to the company's facilities at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, building a 380-foot-tall building where Super Heavy boosters and Starships can be refurbished and processed for launch from one and possibly two Florida launch pads. The towering "Gigabay" facility will provide 46.5 million cubic space for processing with 815,000 square feet of work space. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2026. Another facility is planned where Starships can be built from scratch in Florida, similar to a facility already in place at Boca Chica. "To enable initial Starship flights from Florida while our Space Coast Starship manufacturing, integration, and refurbishment facilities are being completed, we will first transport completed Super Heavy boosters and Starship upper stage ships from Starbase via barge to build up a Starship fleet in Florida," SpaceX said in a statement Monday. "With production, integration, refurbishment, and launch facilities in Florida as well as Texas, we will be in a position to quickly ramp Starship's launch rate via rapid reusability." Watch: Trump's full address to Congress Ex-Army recruiter flees state with 17-year-old girlfriend after estranged wife's murder Takeaways from Trump's joint address to Congress
CBS News
07-03-2025
- Science
- CBS News
SpaceX Starship breaks apart after launch in second failure in a row
SpaceX launched its huge Starship rocket on the program's eighth test flight Thursday, but a malfunction of some sort triggered multiple upper stage engine shutdowns and the vehicle failed to reach its planned sub-orbital altitude, breaking apart in a spectacular shower of debris. It was the second failure in a row for a Starship upper stage, a vehicle critical to NASA's plans to return astronauts to the moon in the next few years. "Obviously, a lot to go through, a lot to dig through. We're going to go right at it," said SpaceX launch commentator Dan Huot. "The primary reason we do these flight tests is to learn. We have some more to learn about this vehicle, but we're going to be right back here in the not-too-distant future, and we're going to get a ship to space." Added commentator Kate Tice: "We fly to learn, and we're learning a lot. As is the case with developmental programs such as the Starship program, progress isn't always linear." Three days after a last-minute scrub due to unspecified technical issues, SpaceX fired up the Super Heavy first stage's 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines at 6:30 p.m. EST. Two seconds later, the tallest, most powerful rocket in the world majestically lifted off from the company's launch site on the Texas Gulf Coast. Capable of generating up to 16 million pounds of thrust — more than twice the power as NASA's Saturn 5 moon rocket — the Super Heavy-Starship arced away to the east atop of long jet of bluish flame. After boosting the Starship upper stage out of the dense lower atmosphere, the 230-foot-tall, 30-foot-wide Super Heavy first stage booster flew itself back to the launch site and into the grasp of two giant mechanical arms known as "chopsticks" mounted on the side of the launch tower. The chopsticks closed around the slowly descending booster, locking onto structural capture fixtures on both sides of the rocket. The dramatic launch pad capture, SpaceX's third, is a key element in the company's plan to enable rapid refurbishment and reuse. The 160-foot-tall Starship upper stage, meanwhile, climbed toward space as planned on the power of six Raptor engines, appearing to work flawlessly as it soared skyward toward the planned sub-orbital trajectory. But a little more than eight minutes after liftoff, telemetry shown on SpaceX's live webcast indicated four of the six engines had prematurely shut down. A camera on the Starship showed the spacecraft starting to spin about and several seconds later contact was lost. Multiple videos posted on YouTube showed a dramatic shower of debris arcing back toward Earth after the vehicle broke up. It wasn't immediately clear if the breakup was triggered by the Starship's self-destruct system or by extreme structural loads as it fell back into the lower atmosphere. While SpaceX will no doubt attempt its usual rapid recovery, the Federal Aviation Administration will almost certainly order another failure investigation. Given two destructive breakups in a row, it could take longer to return to flight status this time around. The flight plan called for a battery of tests, including the deployment of four simulated Starlink satellites to test the Starship's payload release system, the in-space restart of one of the rocket's Raptor engines and tests of new heat shield materials and components needed for the eventual pad capture of returning Starships. At the conclusion of the sub-orbital flight, the Starship was expected fall back into the atmosphere belly first. Once past the region of maximum atmospheric heating, the rocket was programmed to flip into a vertical orientation before settling to a tail-first rocket-powered "soft landing" in the Indian Ocean near Australia. But it was not to be. During the program's seventh integrated flight test, or IFT, in January, a fire developed just above the Super Heavy first stage engines and contact was lost eight minutes and 20 seconds after launch. Three minutes after that, the rocket's self-destruct system triggered an explosion that broke the Starship apart, producing a spectacular shower of flaming debris that rained down along the flight path. Telemetry indicated the fire broke out after propellant lines leading to one of the Raptors ruptured due to unexpected harmonic vibrations. SpaceX carried out a 60-second engine test firing of the Starship launched Monday, studying responses to various thrust levels. Based on the test results, propellant feed lines were modified, fuel temperatures were changed and thrust levels were adjusted to avoid any such harmonic responses. Additional vents were installed in the area where the fire broke out and a nitrogen purge system was added to minimize the chance of fire. It was not immediately known what went wrong Thursday. Working the bugs out of the Super Heavy-Starship is critical to both SpaceX and NASA. SpaceX is under contract to NASA to supply a modified Starship to carry astronauts to landings near the moon's south pole in the agency's Artemis program. To get a Starship lander to the moon, SpaceX must first get it into low-Earth orbit, then launch multiple Super Heavy-Starship "tankers" to refuel the moon-bound Starship for the trip to lunar orbit. The astronauts will launch atop NASA's Space Launch System rocket and fly to the moon aboard a Lockheed Martin-built Orion capsule. The crew will transfer to the waiting Starship for the descent to the lunar surface. NASA hopes to send the first woman and the next man to the moon in the 2027-28 timeframe, after an unpiloted Starship moon landing. Rapid reusability is a key element of the program given the number of Super Heavy-Starships that will be required for a single moon landing. Multiple successful test flights will be needed to perfect the system and demonstrate the reliability required to carry astronauts. The latest mishap comes amid ambitious SpaceX plans for major upgrades to the company's facilities at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, building a 380-foot-tall building where Super Heavy boosters and Starships can be refurbished and processed for launch from one and possibly two Florida launch pads. The towering "Gigabay" facility will provide 46.5 million cubic space for processing with 815,000 square feet of work space. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2026. Another facility is planned where Starships can be built from scratch in Florida, similar to a facility already in place at Boca Chica. "To enable initial Starship flights from Florida while our Space Coast Starship manufacturing, integration, and refurbishment facilities are being completed, we will first transport completed Super Heavy boosters and Starship upper stage ships from Starbase via barge to build up a Starship fleet in Florida," SpaceX said in a statement Monday. "With production, integration, refurbishment, and launch facilities in Florida as well as Texas, we will be in a position to quickly ramp Starship's launch rate via rapid reusability."
