SpaceX Starship Lost After Successful Mission

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Facts

  • After launching from Texas Thursday morning, the SpaceX Starship rocket entered outer space before detaching from its booster and conducting a controlled descent back to Earth. While in orbit, it transferred liquid oxygen between two tanks, simulating a re-fueling.1
  • The heat of the air during re-entry eventually cut communication between the base and the spacecraft, but not before attached cameras — powered by the company's Starlink internet satellites — broadcast video footage of the flight.2
  • While this was the company's most successful orbital flight so far, the Starship's 18K heat shield tiles were not enough to keep the rocket in flight through its originally planned splashdown in the Indian Ocean.3
  • This follows two previous Starship launches, both of which ended in explosions after lift-off. The company plans to conduct six more launches this year and, if they land intact, SpaceX must submit each flight's data to the US government before a rocket can be reused.4
  • Another key component to Starship's eventual success will be to reignite the spacecraft's engines during shallow orbit, though the company chose not to do so this time.4
  • This is the latest step in SpaceX's, and its owner Elon Musk's, goal of bringing humans to Mars. In the shorter term, NASA also hopes to use the Starship for its Artemis III program, which aims to put astronauts on the Moon by Sept. 2026.5

Sources: 1axios.com, 2New York Times, 3Washington Post, 4Reuters.com and 5CNN.

Narratives

  • Narrative A, as provided by Business Insider. While the Starship program isn't quite ready to shuttle humans to Mars, this extraordinary and historic display of aerospace engineering shows SpaceX is on its way to achieving its goals. Not only will this rocketship launch Americans back into space, but it will do so at a much lower cost if both the spaceship and booster can be consistently reused.
  • Narrative B, as provided by Medium. While SpaceX — as is the case with many other Musk-owned companies — is accomplishing incredible things, we can't forget that almost all of his start-ups have been boosted significantly by government funding. Out of all of Musk's business ventures, SpaceX rockets will receive the most taxpayer dollars — so is it truly worth the cost when this industry likely turns into a for-profit space tourism enterprise? If tax dollars are going to be spent anywhere, maybe the government should go back to subsidizing the more beneficial industry of electric cars.

Predictions