Starship Nails 10th Test Flight, putting SpaceX back on the right track

After a series of unsuccessful flights, SpaceX has managed to succeed in its most successful test for months, Starship filling a number of key milestones.

It was a good day for SpaceX. The MegarroTro took off on time, leaving the launch support for Starbase at 7:30 p.m. he. The separation of the scene took place without a hitch, with the Super Heavy Booster booster in the ocean as planned for almost 7 minutes in the mission. The second engine cut (Seco) occurred a few minutes later, and Starship began to sail in space, this time without the terrible tumbling felt in the last mission.

The story was made at 6.30 p.m. when Starship opened its bay doors and ejected useful loads into space for the first time.

In this case, the useful charges were new generation Starlink satellite models. Acting as a Pez distributor, Starship jumped each fictitious satellite in space one at a time and at intervals of about a minute (the units will fall on earth and burn in the atmosphere). He scored a huge moment for SpaceX, starships finally operating as a delivery vehicle.

About 38 minutes after the start of the flight, Starship rewritten one of its vacuum optimized power engines – the second time that SpaceX has succeeded in the maneuver.

Starship’s reintegration started at around 45 minutes, the spaceship rushing to the Indian Ocean. SpaceX carried out a stress test on the vehicle, deliberately compromising its thermal shield to be “nasty for the spacecraft” and putting it “to the test”, as Dan Huot de Spacex said during the broadcast. The fins in particular were pushed to the limit, one of them showing clear signs of scars.

The upper starship floor returned to earth at 8:37 p.m., ending the 67 -minute mission. Despite the abuses, Starship executed its last moment, performing an landing burn and splashing slowly in the Indian Ocean before exploding in a fireball. Incredibly, a camera mounted on a neighboring buoy managed to take the action.

It was the flight that SpaceX was desperately needed. We will learn more about the test in the coming days and weeks, but the changes to the oversized launch system seem to do the trick. But as we have learned, a single successful test is not a future gain guarantee. SpaceX still has a long way to go before this incredible launch system is fully operational.