SpaceX made a 3rd test flight of their huge "Starship"
rocket this morning. This time it DID make it to orbit.

Alas, something went wrong during the de-orbit maneuver
and the vehicle was destroyed. It is unclear whether
it had a RUD or whether SpaceX itself pushed the button.

BBC showed a few videos from the onboard cameras.

No further details at this point.

On 3/14/24 11:27 AM, 68hx.1804 wrote:
> SpaceX made a 3rd test flight of their huge "Starship"
> rocket this morning. This time it DID make it to orbit.
>
> Alas, something went wrong during the de-orbit maneuver
> and the vehicle was destroyed. It is unclear whether
> it had a RUD or whether SpaceX itself pushed the button.
>
> BBC showed a few videos from the onboard cameras.
>
> No further details at this point.
>

Update : SpaceX posted the full video.

The booster did NOT decelerate properly and smacked
hard into the Gulf Of Mexico. Graphics indicated
that the descent engines were struggling to
follow the program.

The "Starship" did quite well until near the end.
It failed at 65k altitude on descent- unsure whether
it could not take the heat, or the stress. The bits
fell into the Indian Ocean. They DID get to test
the cargo door, which worked as intended.

ANYway ... a hell of a lot better than the
previous tests. SpaceX will study the sensor
data and likely the next flight will go
far better. This is their development paradigm.
Worked super-well with the Falcons - basically
THE most reliable rocket system ever now.

Of course the GOAL is to fully recover BOTH bits
and re-use them. That might be a few flights further
down the line. Not sure if SpaceX HAS a safe place
to try and land the booster ... much less the
StarShip. Baja maybe ??? Desert Africa would
theoretically be good - but there are nothing
but wars and terrorism going on there right now.