Starship, Elon Musk’s megarocket, explodes in its latest test with Trump as a spectator

With British punctuality, the rocket rose with the 33 Raptor engines of the SuperHeavy stage ignited. At 3 minutes 40 seconds it separated from the upper stage, Starship, without apparent problems. However, a few minutes later, SpaceX engineers confirmed that on this occasion the SuperHeavy ‘hunt’ could not be seen at the ‘Mechazilla’ base, as in the previous test. The company had already warned that they would be stricter with the decision to use the reception facilities on the maritime platform – a resolution that is made once the two stages are separated. SuperHeavy finally splashed down in the Indian Ocean, exploding after falling into the water, leaving one of the tanks floating in the water.

While all this was happening, Starship continued its path for another hour on a parabolic trajectory whose end was marked over the Indian Ocean, near the coast of Australia. After half an hour of flight, Starship managed to turn on one of its Raptors in space, which will allow it, in theory, to carry out orbital flights in the next tests. Inside, a banana as cargo showed zero gravity. Just around the hour, the rocket began to descend, showing live the atmospheric reentry, which for the first time was daytime. After giving some luxurious views of the rocket descending over the sea, the Starship finally ended up engulfed in flames floating over the Indian Ocean.

The previous tests

Elon Musk is used to detonations and flames. Although SpaceX has been testing both stages separately for years (half of them with ‘explosive’ results), we had to wait until April of last year to see the integrated Starship fly for the first time. However, the adventure was short-lived: three minutes after takeoff, and after failing to separate both stages, the rocket ended up self-destructing for safety reasons after rotating uncontrollably for several seconds.

The second attempt took place in November. On this occasion, the two stages separated successfully, but a few minutes later both Starship and SuperHeavy ended up engulfed in flames. He third attempt was much better: the separation of the stages was carried out correctly and both SuperHeavy and Starship continued on their paths as planned. The problem came with splashdown and reentry, because SuperHeavy, although it was placed in the correct position, ended up falling uncontrollably at the last moment. Starship, for its part, although at first it was placed in a vertical position as planned, during reentry it could be observed how it oscillated in an uncontrolled trajectory.

The fourth test carried out in June went one step further and ensured that both stages made a controlled return, although we had to wait until the fifth and until now last attempt to see Superheavy being ‘caught’ by the robotic arms of the maritime platform in a successful flight (although a methane leak ended the spectacle with more flames than the rest).

What to expect in the future

The goal is for Starship to be a fully reusable launcher that can be used for multiple launches. In fact, this will be the last time we see this model of rocket: the next version that will be tested in the next tests will include changes, such as the removal of the piece that now protects SuperHeavy from Starship ignition (and that is not reusable) or a new heat shield.

Starship will be the rocket that takes the next crew of NASA astronauts to set foot on the Moon again, specifically on the Artemis 3 mission, scheduled to take off in September 2026 (although it was originally planned for next year).

However, first SpaceX must prove that not only is it capable of successfully flying its Starship in this type of test, but that the upper stage is capable of landing on our satellite and then taking off again to return the Orion capsule (in which the astronauts will travel) to Earth. The idea is that the tests will be shortened in time and that we will see launches every so often until September 2026 arrives with a fully operational rocket.

«That is the date we are working towards. We don’t have any known obstacles and there are some things that are being done for the first time, but we have a plan to demonstrate them,” he explained to Spaceflight Now Kent Chojancki, deputy director of NASA’s Human Landing System (HLS) program.

Chojancki is responsible for overseeing contracts for both the development of Starship and Blue Origin’s lunar lander, Blue Moon, which will be used on the Artemis 5 mission, since the US space agency does not want to put all its eggs in the same basket and has chosen to diversify its contractors, as it already did with the ships that currently send its astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).