Gamingdeputy reported on March 17 that SpaceX revealed new details about the third test flight of its behemoth Starship. The test flight was carried out at 8:25 a.m. local time on March 14 at Starbase, Texas. It learned from the experience of previous test flights and achieved many new goals.
33 Raptor engines were fired in a staggered sequence and then gradually accelerated, marking the third liftoff of the world's largest rocket. As the starship climbed toward the South Texas sky, the 33 engines operated normally until thermal separation. During the separation process, the 30 engines of the Super Heavy booster (Super Heavy) were shut down, and the starship ignited 3 sea-level Raptor engines and 3 vacuum Raptor engines, and continued to fly into space.
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Booster 10, the first stage of the Super Heavy booster, successfully performed its first boost back burn and is scheduled to splash down on the sea east of the launch site in the Gulf of Mexico. According to data shown in a webcast, the booster reached a peak speed of 5,750 km/h and an altitude of 106 km.
Unlike Falcon 9, Super Heavy does not require a booster reentry burn (Entry Burn) due to its large size. However, one of the last pieces of data shown on the webcast showed that as the booster attempted to initiate a landing ignition about 1 kilometer above the water, only three engines fired, but two of them stalled almost immediately.
SpaceX later confirmed that Booster 10 experienced an “unplanned rapid disintegration” just 462 meters above the water, and the wreckage likely fell into the water at nearly the speed of sound.
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While Booster 10 completed its mission in the Gulf of Mexico, Starship 28 continued to ignite all six Raptor engines, completed the first full-duration burn, and entered the predetermined suborbital flight trajectory.
Starship 28 then entered the taxiing phase and began a series of tests. The first is opening the payload bay door 12 minutes into the flight, which will eventually be used to release full-size Starlink satellites. SpaceX has not confirmed whether the hatch was successfully fully opened/closed. 30 minutes and 18 seconds into the mission, the hatch seemed to fall off and fall into the payload bay. We can no longer obtain real-time footage of the interior of the spacecraft.
The next task was to reignite the first Raptor engine in history to operate in space, but due to the vehicle's tumbling rate, SpaceX decided to postpone this experiment to a future test flight.
Starship 28 then began to reenter the atmosphere,But the spacecraft seemed to partially lose control and began to spin, eventually producing plasma. Only half of the spacecraft's heat shield was exposed, with the remaining exposed stainless steel bearing much of the force of the reentry process.
Gamingdeputy noted that thanks to the onboard Starlink terminal, SpaceX is able to provide real-time footage from the starship's flap camera. The plasma initially appeared as a faint pink glow, then quickly expanded and enveloped the entire vehicle.
In short, SpaceX has made significant progress in this third test flight of the Starship and will strive to complete all set goals in the fourth test flight, including the smooth splashdown of the Super Heavy booster and the successful re-entry of the Starship into the atmosphere.