[US], November 14: SpaceX's Starship rocket successfully launched into orbit on a test flight on November 13, but plans to recover both stages simultaneously were hampered when the booster stage fell into the Gulf of Mexico while on fire.
The Starship rocket was launched from Starbase in Texas, marking the 15th test flight of the world's largest rocket system, developed by Elon Musk 's company . The goal this time was to return both the Super Heavy booster stage and the Starship spacecraft to the launch pad - where robotic arms on the launch tower would retrieve them in mid-air for reuse, according to AP.
However, shortly after separating from the spacecraft, the Super Heavy booster failed to return to the launch tower as planned and instead diverted towards the Gulf of Mexico. The booster then fell into the sea while on fire. SpaceX has not yet announced the cause of the incident.
"This is certainly not the news we were hoping for today," acknowledged Kate Tice, the SpaceX launch commentator. She stated that the diversion decision was in line with rigorous safety procedures aimed at protecting the launch pad.
The upper part of the Starship spacecraft continued its journey, entering Earth orbit and deploying 26 next-generation Starlink satellites . According to plan, the spacecraft will orbit the Earth at an altitude of approximately 275 km before returning to the Starbase space station on November 14th, concluding a test flight lasting about 22 hours.
If successful, this would be the first time SpaceX has recovered a Starship directly from the launch tower after orbital flight. Previously, the company had successfully recovered the Super Heavy booster stage three times, but had never performed a similar operation with the upper stage of Starship.
According to The Guardian, the test flight used an upgraded version of the 72-meter-long Super Heavy missile and the 52-meter-long Starship. When combined, the system is approximately 124 meters tall, making it the largest and most powerful missile in the world.
Billionaire Elon Musk aims to fully reuse both rocket stages, thereby reducing costs and increasing launch frequency for missions to the moon and eventually to Mars. This is also a key difference from SpaceX's current Falcon series, which only recovers and reuses the first stage.
Starship also plays a crucial role in NASA 's Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the moon, with a landing target as early as 2028. SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin are developing lander systems for this program.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
