SpaceX Starship Achieves Orbit, Faces Re-entry Challenges
WASHINGTON – May 29, 2024 – SpaceX’s starship, during its ninth test, successfully achieved orbit before encountering difficulties during re-entry, resulting in an uncontrolled descent into the Indian Ocean. The test flight aimed to push the boundaries of space travel, but the Starship experienced a cargo hatch issue and loss of attitude control. For the detailed specifics, read on.
SpaceX’s Starship Achieves Orbit,faces Re-entry Challenges
SpaceX’s starship,in its ninth test flight,reached a significant milestone Tuesday evening by successfully separating from its Super Heavy rocket booster and achieving orbit. However, the mission encountered difficulties later, resulting in an uncontrolled re-entry into the Indian Ocean. According to SpaceX, the company had cleared the surrounding airspace where Starship was expected to come down.
Did you know? starship is designed to be fully reusable, aiming to drastically reduce the cost of space travel and enable missions to the Moon and Mars.
A Flight of Contrasts: Successes and Setbacks
The ninth test flight presented a mixed bag of results for SpaceX. while it marked the smoothest Starship test of the year, especially after two consecutive explosions,
it also highlighted ongoing challenges in achieving full mission objectives. The launch, which occurred from SpaceX’s facility in southern Texas, featured a flight-proven Super Heavy booster, previously used during Starship’s seventh flight test.
Key Milestones and Anomalies
- Successful Separation: The Super Heavy booster separated as planned, allowing Starship to enter space.
- Cargo Hatch Issue: The ship encountered a problem with opening a side cargo hatch, preventing the deployment of mock satellites.
- Loss of Attitude Control: Later in the flight, Starship
lost attitude control,
hindering its ability to properly orient itself for re-entry.
Pro Tip: Attitude control systems are crucial for spacecraft to maintain their orientation in space, ensuring they can perform maneuvers and re-enter the atmosphere safely.
FAA Clearance and Previous Tests
The ninth flight test followed the Federal Aviation Governance’s (FAA) clearance for SpaceX to resume Starship flights. This clearance came less then a week after the FAA cleared SpaceX to perform the test flight of its Starship rocket system following those back-to-back explosions earlier this year.
Earlier attempts included:
- January Test: SpaceX successfully caught the Starship’s heavy booster rocket on its descent for a second time. Starship successfully separated from the booster and ignited its rockets to ascend to orbit,but it was soon lost after suffering an anomaly.Debris from Starship fell into the airspace near Puerto Rico, prompting the FAA to reroute several aircraft in the airspace.
- March Test: The Super Heavy booster successfully separated and was caught by the launch tower in Texas for a third time.Starship reached space, but eight minutes into the flight, the ship lost multiple Raptor engines and began to spiral.
Safety Measures and Hardware Upgrades
Following the two previous explosions, the FAA expanded hazard areas in the U.S. and other countries based on an updated safety analysis from spacex. After completing an inquiry into the loss of Starship on its eighth flight test, SpaceX implemented several hardware changes aimed at enhancing reliability.
