"SpaceX closed a troubled but instructive chapter in its Starship rocket program Monday with a near-perfect test flight that carried the stainless steel spacecraft halfway around the world from South Texas to the Indian Ocean. The rocket's 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines roared to life at 6:23 pm CDT (7:23 pm EDT; 23:23 UTC), throttling up to generate some 16.7 million pounds of thrust, by a large measure more powerful than any rocket before Starship."
"SpaceX didn't try to recover the Super Heavy booster on this flight, but the goals the company set before the launch included an attempt to guide the enormous rocket stage to a precise splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of South Texas. The booster, reused from a previous flight in March, also validated a new engine configuration for its landing burn, first reigniting 13 of its engines, then downshifting to five, then to three for the final hover."
SpaceX closed the V2 Starship chapter with a near-perfect test flight that carried the stainless steel spacecraft halfway around the world to the Indian Ocean. Thirty-three methane-fueled Raptor engines produced about 16.7 million pounds of thrust as the 404-foot rocket climbed from Starbase, Texas, and executed its flight plan precisely. The flight met every objective and returned valuable performance data ahead of the next-generation vehicle. The Super Heavy booster, reused from a March flight, validated a staged landing-burn engine sequence and aimed for a precise Gulf of Mexico splashdown. One booster engine failed during descent but did not affect mission outcomes. Version 3 is scheduled to arrive next year.
Read at WIRED
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