SpaceX’s massive Starship blasted off into the sky on Tuesday night for its ninth test flight following back-to-back failures earlier this year.
The 400-foot-tall ship launched from the company’s Starbase facility in Texas just after 7:30 p.m., with the rocket aiming to deploy eight Starlink satellite simulators, a first for Starship, before a scheduled landing in the Indian Ocean.
The spacecraft took off after a delay of a few minutes as some last moment issues were worked out.
Perfecting the Starship is critical for Elon Musk’s quest to reach Mars next year.
Tuesday’s test also marked the first time that SpaceX has reused the Super Heavy booster rocket. The booster had previously been used in January.
Unlike with previous missions, SpaceX will not be attempting to catch the Super Heavy booster. The booster rocket was set to splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico during Tuesday’s launch but blew up after detaching from the main rocket, according to a broadcast of the launch.
The Starship is flying the same route as its predecessor, which exploded 10 minutes after take off during SpaceX’s eighth test in March.
Nearly 1 million viewers watched as the spaceship spun out of control and exploded over the Atlantic ocean, causing several Florida airports to ground flights due to “space launch debris.”
A similar incident occurred during the seventh test when Starship experienced a propellant leak during its ascent, causing it to break apart and explode in January.
Despite the failures, both missions saw success in guiding the Super heavy boosters back to the Texas launchpad, where they were caught with the so-called “chopsticks” or “Mechazilla” mechanical arms.
Starship is designed to be fully and rapidly reusable, saving SpaceX significantly on cost and resources, which would aid the company in reaching its ultimate goal of pioneering travel to the Moon and Mars.
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