SpaceX Starship Had Explosive First Space Launch Attempt

Space.com

SpaceX's fully integrated Starship and Super Heavy rocket launched for the first time. The test flight successfully launched but failed to separate and ended with Rapid Unplanned Disassembly (RUD) a few minutes into flight.  Credit: SpaceX

Transcript

00:00 [cheering]

00:20 Two minutes, 15 seconds.

00:21 [cheering]

00:25 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

00:34 [engine noise]

00:49 [radio chatter]

01:02 Booster after chamber pressure is nominal.

01:04 [cheering]

01:09 Two plus 43 seconds into the test flight of the inaugural Starship vehicle.

01:14 Tower cleared, we're into pitch over.

01:16 Propulsion reports first stage engines nominal.

01:19 What a sight when the ground cameras explode.

01:22 We're flying at twice the thrust of a Saturn V heading to space.

01:26 [cheering]

01:30 Our position is 6,000 feet, 15.

01:32 [cheering]

01:34 We're throttled down and throttled back up.

01:37 [cheering]

01:40 Going through the period of maximum aerodynamic pressure.

01:43 [cheering]

01:50 As the velocity increases, the density of the atmosphere is decreasing.

01:54 Max Q.

01:55 Lessening stress on the vehicle. The call out, Max Q now.

01:58 [cheering]

02:06 Continuing to watch the first stage as we head downrange.

02:09 [cheering]

02:16 100 seconds into flight.

02:18 [cheering]

02:21 Our next major activity is going to be shutdown of the first stage.

02:25 Houston tracking station now acquiring the vehicle.

02:28 With shutdown, we will get separation of Starship from Super Heavy

02:33 and ignition of the Starship engines.

02:35 When Starship separates, we light up six engines in a staggered sequence.

02:40 If all goes well, those six engines will burn for almost six and a half minutes.

02:45 Onboard view from Starship.

02:47 [cheering]

02:50 And there's views of the Raptor engines on the second stage as we prepare for stage separation.

02:56 Now after stage separation, the first stage will flip

02:59 and begin a boost back maneuver for landing in the Gulf.

03:03 [cheering]

03:15 Continuing to fly. Two minutes, 40 seconds. Let's get ready for main engine cutoff.

03:20 [cheering]

03:25 Beginning to flip for stage separation.

03:27 [cheering]

03:37 [chatter]

03:58 As of right now, we are awaiting stage separation.

04:04 The entire Starship should separate from the Super Heavy booster.

04:12 Kate, right now it looks like we saw the start of the flip,

04:15 but obviously we're seeing from the ground cameras the entire Starship stack continuing to rotate.

04:20 We should have had separation by now.

04:22 Obviously this does not appear to be a nominal situation.

04:27 Yeah, it does appear to be spinning, but I do want to remind everyone that

04:31 everything after clearing the tower was icing on the cake.

04:36 [cheering]

04:44 And there as you saw, as we promised, an exciting end to the Starship inaugural integrated test flight.

04:53 [cheering]

05:06 Everyone here absolutely pumped to clear the pad and make it this far into the test flight,

05:12 the first integrated flight of the booster and the Starship vehicle.

05:18 We have a live view there of our control center at Starbase, which we refer to as Star Command.

05:28 As we said before, obviously we wanted to make it all the way through,

05:32 but to get this far honestly is amazing.

05:37 If you're just joining us, Starship just experienced what we call a rapid unscheduled disassembly

05:43 or a RUD during ascent.

05:46 This was a development test. This was the first test flight of Starship,

05:49 and the goal was to gather the data and as we said, clear the pad and get ready to go again.

05:55 So you never know exactly what's going to happen, but as we promised, excitement is guaranteed.

06:01 And Starship gave us a rather spectacular end to what was truly an incredible test thus far.

06:07 As we mentioned at the start of today's program, any and all the data that we collected during the test

06:13 is going to help us with further development of Starship,

06:16 and it's going to improve the vehicle's reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multi-planetary.

06:21 It's really worth noting that the flight path was designed to be over water and all the air and sea space

06:27 along with that flight path and those surrounding areas were cleared in advance of the test.

06:31 And of course, we're going to be coordinating with local authorities for the recovery operations.

06:36 But honestly, what an exciting morning. Oh my gosh.

06:41 We had a successful liftoff from Starbase, Texas at 8.28 a.m. Central Time.

06:47 We cleared the tower, which honestly was our only hope.

06:52 We cleared the tower and all the data that we collected all the way through all those Raptor, those 33,

06:59 although I think we saw that three Raptor engines were out, but we got all that data.

07:04 And we got so far as to hoping to see the Starship, the second stage, separate from the first stage,

07:11 the super heavy booster. And unfortunately, we didn't make that happen, but that's okay.

07:16 It was the first integrated launch. And honestly, today was amazing.

07:21 Absolutely incredible day. We made it through a number of those initial test objectives

07:28 with getting booster ascent, getting all the way through the countdown, working some issues at the end.

07:33 Like really fantastic day. Got through the gate at T-minus 40 seconds on the second try.

07:38 Everything released, the hold downs, quick disconnect arms, everything moves out of the way.

07:42 And then we got the vehicle off of the pad through Max Q all the way up to stage separation,

07:48 even starting into the prep for stage step. And then as we say, a lot of excitement.

07:53 Honestly, my face has had a smile on it since liftoff and now my face hurts.

07:59 Now, since we don't have any insights on the cause of our rapid unscheduled disassembly,

08:04 at this point, we're going to end our webcast here.

08:07 Teams will continue to review the data and work toward our next flight test.

08:11 But before we go, a big congrats to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting first integrated flight test of Starship.

08:18 And of course, a shout out to our viewers. We appreciate you joining us.

08:22 And as always, we thank you for your interest in Starship, SpaceX, and your ongoing support.

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