SpaceX was unable to complete the entire mission, with both the Starship spacecraft and the Super Heavy booster exploding at sea.
But SpaceX had some big highlights.
The rocket advanced further into its flight profile than during its first flight attempt in April, when Starship began rolling its tail overhead about four minutes after liftoff. During that test, the starship never separated from the super heavy booster.
But now, SpaceX has achieved that milestone. About two and a half minutes into the flight, Starship powered up its engines and used a completely new method called “hot staging” to successfully break away.
This was a watershed moment for SpaceX, as SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in October that hot staging was expected to be “the most dangerous part of flight.”
SpaceX has already said the mission will be considered a success if Starship can clear that spot. And it happened.
However, things didn’t go as planned. The Super Heavy booster lost control shortly after separation and exploded over the Gulf of Mexico shortly thereafter. SpaceX had hoped to reignite the Super Heavy’s engines and guide it to a controlled landing.
Losing a booster is not a huge setback. Initially, Starship continued to do well after coming out of Super Heavy.
Approximately eight minutes after liftoff, cheers could be heard echoing throughout Mission Control as the Starship neared the end of its engine burn and entered orbit toward Earth’s orbit.
But nine minutes after liftoff, SpaceX revealed it had lost video signal with Starship.
About 11 and a half minutes into the flight, the company confirmed that data had been lost. It showed that the starship was not flying according to plan.
Engineer John Insprucker, who hosts SpaceX’s livestream, acknowledged that SpaceX had no choice but to destroy Starship to keep it on course.
The company has already stressed that the test was a success in its opinion.
“We’ve got so much data that it’s all going to help us improve for the next flight,” Kate Tice, SpaceX’s engineering manager for quality systems, said during the livestream.
The company said the same thing in a tweet after a short test flight in April.
The company is known for tolerating failures and catastrophic accidents in the early stages of rocket development. This is built into the company’s engineering philosophy, which welcomes early risks during test flights in the name of learning and refining the vehicle’s design faster than relying on ground tests.