Did y’all enjoy that?! Starship’s first integrated test flight, after a three-day delay, was explosive!

Starship and Super Heavy on the orbital launch mount (Credit: SpaceX)

Wasn’t it great?! This was the first liftoff from Starbase at Boca Chica, Texas, since SN15 took to the skies and successfully landed, remaining upright, on 6th May 2021. It’s been an almost two-year wait for the first integrated test flight of Starship and the Super Heavy booster, but it was worth it!

The build-up itself on Monday - for the first scheduled launch attempt - had me in floods of tears several times, well before SpaceX’s live webcast began. I’d watched the Moon landings as a boy, later knowing Edgar D Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the Moon. But I’ve been disappointed, overall, in the decades since at the slow pace of progress from NASA and others. That is, until SpaceX got going with a radically different attitude and approach. Their Falcon Heavy test flight woke me up again with a wonderful jolt.

SpaceX’s coverage on Monday kicked into motion as expected at approximately T-00:45:00 minutes and it was enthralling. The transmission began with some great introductory footage of the Starship program, followed by an enthusiastic overview and genuinely interesting titbits presented by two young SpaceX employees. I cheered very, very loudly when John Insprucker - the principal integration engineer - joined them at T-00:27:00 minutes. John made a definite impression on me way back when he expertly guided us through that Falcon Heavy test flight in February 2018. SpaceX then gave us an essential catch-up of earlier Starship test flights, followed by an insight into life at Starbase. This live webcast was authentic and almost faultless - something NASA has never got close to mastering in recent times.

At T-00:17:00 minutes, John said the SpaceX team were looking at an issue with the first stage booster pressurisation system. He then broke the news none of us wanted to hear, at T-00:09:00 minutes, that the launch had just been scrubbed for the day. We were told it would be at least another 48 hours before a second launch attempt could happen because of fuel recycling, and this was subsequently extended to Thursday. Everything else had been looking good. The countdown continued as a Wet Dress Rehearsal until T-00:00:40 seconds, but the excitement had been halted for the time being.

Scrubs and other delays are part of space launches, because everything - absolutely everything - has to be right before the flight director can give the incredible “Go for launch!” signal. This especially must be expected when it’s a test launch, as different from a commercial launch. It was “only” a stuck or frozen valve that had thwarted Monday’s launch attempt, but that was enough.

For anyone who doesn’t already know, the ultimate aim of Starship is to facilitate the colonisation of Mars. SpaceX released this short animated presentation just over a week ago:

Back to today (Thursday) and SpaceX’s live webcast coverage recommenced for the second launch attempt with all the exuberance that was evident on Monday. There was some concern about the weather earlier on in the day, but everything progressed smoothly until T-00:00:26 seconds. The flight director called a countdown hold for final launch checkouts, which lasted for just five minutes. Then a huge cheer from the gathered SpaceX staff signalled the countdown had restarted, and we were rapidly into the last few seconds.

The 33 Raptor engines powerfully roared into life permitting the fully-stacked Starship and Super Heavy booster to lift upwards. Everyone would have given a sigh of relief if the excitement could have been paused as the rocket cleared the launch pad, because failure would have been marked by a catastrophic explosion at this earliest point, but the exhilaration kept on quickly unfolding.

At T+00:00:17 seconds, three Raptor engines seemed to have become inactive; after 40 seconds, this became four engines out - and then at just over one minute, five Raptors looked to have stopped working. Nevertheless, the sight of 33 Raptor engines configured within a circle (albeit with a few now inactive) was seriously impressive as the rocket gained altitude.

Max-Q was safely reached, signifying an important milestone in the test flight. This is the key potential danger point of maximum dynamic pressure or stress on the rocket’s structure.

At an altitude of 39km, stage separation of Starship and Super Heavy failed to occur, and it soon became obvious that the test flight wouldn’t progress any further. The world’s tallest/biggest rocket thereafter spiralled uncontrollably downwards and a RUD (rapid unscheduled disassembly) occurred, likely triggered by the flight termination system.

The SpaceX webcast presenters were excellent in reminding their viewers that this was a development program test flight. Starship and Super Heavy had successfully cleared the launch pad, with everything afterwards providing invaluable data. John Insprucker summed it up by saying: “You never know exactly what’s going to happen. But, as we promised, excitement is guaranteed!”

Written by Iain Scott, 20th April 2023