SpaceX launches giant Starship for fourth test flight
SpaceX ’s grand Starship rocket has been launched for its fourth test toward space from south Texas on Thursday.
The main ambition of the Elon Musk’s space corporation’s launch is to survive a blazingly hot re-entry through the Earth’s atmosphere. It was the same intensive phase where the rocket broke apart during its last attempt, reported Reuters.
From the company’s Starbase launch site near Boca Chica Village on the Gulf Coast of Texas, the two-stage spacecraft, which consists of the Starship cruise vessel mounted atop its towering Super Heavy rocket booster, blasted off.
In the test-to-failure rocket development campaign of Elon Musk’s company, it is the latest trial mission.
Either by blowing up or disintegrating in the atmosphere, each starship rocket has made it farther in its testing objectives than previous tests before failing.
Minutes after liftoff some 25 miles (40km) above ground, the rocket’s first launch in April 2023 exploded. Moreover, Starship reached space for the first time but exploded soon after during the next attempt in November.
As the starship attempted to return from space halfway around the globe, it made it much farther and broke apart in Earth’s atmosphere in its most recent flight in March.
The rocket’s flight on Thursday is a repetition of its earlier test, however, it aims to get farther.
“Super Heavy”, which is the rocket system’s first stage, ignited its 33 Raptor engines to lift off. It was then due to separate from the Starship second stage, which would then blast further into space.