LOS ANGELES, NOV 20 – SpaceX launched the sixth flight test of its Starship unmanned rocket yesterday, reported Xinhua.
Starship took off from the company’s Starbase facility near Brownsville in the state of Texas, United States (US) at about 4.01pm.
Starship Raptor engines are activated during separation through a ‘hot-staging’ technique. Minutes after takeoff, the Super Heavy’s boosters began landing burn and landed safely in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Starship successfully activated one of its Raptor engines while in space for the first time. About an hour and five minutes after launch, the Starship touched down in the Indian Ocean.
Among the new test objectives are the Super Heavy’s boosters returning to the launch site for capture, restarting the Raptor’s engines in space, as well as testing the heat shield network and maneuver changes for re-entry and landing in the Indian Ocean, according to SpaceX.
However, SpaceX did not manage to return the booster to the launch site as planned. Instead, SpaceX chose to land the Super Heavy booster in the Gulf of Mexico. The reason is still unknown.
Through various flight tests, SpaceX intends to quickly recover and reuse the Super Heavy booster and Starship spacecraft for future missions. – Named
