SpaceX’s Starship Megarocket recently completed its ninth test flight, launching from the company’s Starbase in Texas on May 27. This flight showcased impressive visuals, streamed live on SpaceX’s launch webcast, with post-launch photos and videos shared on social media.
During the flight, the ultra-heavy booster and the upper stage successfully separated, although both stages ultimately experienced failures. The booster aimed for a “hard splashdown” in the Gulf of Mexico but broke apart shortly before landing burns began, around 6 minutes and 20 seconds after launch. Despite reaching suborbital space, the upper stage similarly encountered issues, leading to a “rapid unplanned disassembly” and losing contact about 46 minutes into the flight.
SpaceX aims to use Starship for ambitious goals, including colonizing Mars, and intends to apply lessons learned from this test to improve future flights. The company plans to quickly return the Megarocket to the launch pad for further development and testing.
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