SpaceX, the US aerospace company owned by Elon Musk, has released slow-motion footage of the fourth test flight of its Starship launch from its base site in Boca Chica, Texas at 7:50 am (1250 GMT) on Thursday. The journey lasted about an hour and five minutes. The video footage detailed the immense power and precision required for the spaceship to fly.
The fourth test flight of the 5,000-tonne Starship — its most successful to date — marked a significant milestone for the California-based aerospace company.
Viral slow-motion video footage shows the dramatic moments as the vehicle — which consists of a first-stage Super Heavy booster and an upper-stage Starship spacecraft — climbs toward orbit
SpaceX claimed the Super Heavy booster, equipped with 33 Raptor engines, generated more than 16.7 (74.3 meganewtons) million pounds of thrust to lift the rocket off the launchpad.
During the test flight, Starship’s upper stage performed a “hot staging” maneuver, firing multiple Raptor engines while still attached to the booster. This maneuver ensured a clean separation, allowing the Super Heavy to execute a boost backburn and make a controlled water landing in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Super Heavy booster flight ended with its first landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico 7 minutes and 24 seconds after leaving the launchpad.
Thursday’s mission was very different from the first two test flights of the 120-meter-tall rocket, which ended in explosions just minutes after leaving the launchpad.
“The Super Heavy booster successfully lifted off and completed a full-duration ascent,” SpaceX said in a post-mission report. “Starship executed another successful hot-stage separation, shutting down all but three of Super Heavy’s Raptor engines and successfully igniting the six second-stage Raptor engines before the vehicles separated.”
Starship is key to Musk’s vision of colonizing the Red Planet and making humanity an interplanetary species, while NASA has contracted for a modified version that will serve as the final vehicle to carry astronauts to the moon’s surface under the Artemis program later this decade.
This test flight is part of SpaceX’s aggressive drive to develop fully reusable spacecraft capable of supporting Moon and Mars missions.
Designed to eventually be fully reusable, Starship stands 397 feet (121 meters) tall with both stages combined — that’s 90 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted, “Despite losing several tiles and damaged flaps, Starship made a soft landing in the ocean!” “Congratulations to the SpaceX team on a great achievement!!”
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Published: June 07, 2024, 08:11 PM IST
