SpaceX Starship launch: Date, time and how to watch

SpaceX has successfully captured a super heavy booster for the second time. During Starship’s seventh test flight from Boca Chica, Texas, Super Heavy was able to descend into the “chopstick” arm of the launch pad and grab the booster.

Despite the successful capture, SpaceX lost communication with the spacecraft mounted atop the booster. “We successfully separated from the Super Heavy booster, but two engines shut down during the ascent stage and communication with the vehicle was lost shortly thereafter,” SpaceX’s Kate Tice said during the stream. “We presume the ship is lost.”

“Starship experienced an unscheduled rapid disintegration during its ascent burn,” according to SpaceX, but said the team is still reviewing data to determine why.

Several people who said they were on the Turks and Caicos Islands said they saw Starship’s re-entry wreckage and posted video of it on social media.

According to SpaceX, this version of Starship is “a slightly larger vehicle with significantly improved reliability and performance.”

Along with a redesigned propulsion system and improved flight computer, the flight will feature “multiple metal tile options with active cooling” to test alternative materials and a new heat sink with “backup layer to protect against missing or damaged tiles.” It is done. Before the flight, SpaceX also said that “a significant number of tiles will be removed from the top of Starship for stress testing of vulnerable areas throughout the vehicle,” but it is unknown whether this was a factor in the destruction.

The Super Heavy booster in this test is also the first booster to reuse Raptor engines from previous flight tests.

At 403 feet tall, Starship is the largest launch vehicle ever built. It consists of two parts: a Starship spacecraft designed to carry crew and cargo into orbit, and a Super Heavy Booster equipped with 33 SpaceX Raptor engines that help propel the Starship into space. Both the Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy Boosters are reusable.

On its seventh test flight, Starship was scheduled to deploy 10 Starlink “simulators” for the first time. This mock satellite was the same size and weight as Starlink’s real internet satellite, but it couldn’t stay in space. Instead, they will have “the same suborbital trajectory as a starship” and “die on entry.”

Update, January 16: I recorded the flight results and added a video of the wreckage in the Turks and Caicos Islands.