{"id":17617,"date":"2020-12-09T20:45:37","date_gmt":"2020-12-09T12:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacexs-starship-flies-high-altitude-test-that-ends-with-a-bang-and-with-congrats-from-jeff-bezos\/"},"modified":"2020-12-09T20:45:37","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T12:45:37","slug":"spacexs-starship-flies-high-altitude-test-that-ends-with-a-bang-and-with-congrats-from-jeff-bezos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacexs-starship-flies-high-altitude-test-that-ends-with-a-bang-and-with-congrats-from-jeff-bezos\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX\u2019s Starship flies high-altitude test that ends with a bang \u2014 and with congrats from Jeff Bezos"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_595693\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-595693\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-595693\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/201210-spacex-630x420.jpg\" alt=\"Starship liftoff\" width=\"630\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/201210-spacex-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/201210-spacex-1260x840.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/201210-spacex-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/201210-spacex-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/201210-spacex.jpg 2047w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-595693\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">SpaceX\u2019s Starship SN8 prototype fires its engines for liftoff from its Texas launch pad. (SpaceX Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>SpaceX put its Starship super-rocket through its first high-altitude test today \u2014 and although the flight ended in a fiery crash, the performance was impressive enough to draw congratulations from Jeff Bezos, who\u2019s locked in a multibillion-dollar rivalry with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnybody who knows how hard this stuff is is impressed by today\u2019s Starship test,\u201d Bezos, who\u2019s the CEO of Amazon as well as the founder of the Blue Origin space venture, said in an Instagram post.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBig congrats to the whole SpaceX team. I\u2019m confident they\u2019ll be back at it soon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"instagram-media instagram-media-rendered\" id=\"instagram-embed-0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CImF2runz0j\/embed\/captioned\/?cr=1&amp;v=14&amp;wp=987&amp;rd=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geekwire.com&amp;rp=%2F2020%2Fspacexs-starship-flies-high-altitude-test-ends-bang-congrats-jeff-bezos%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A1913.294999860227%7D\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"1029\" data-instgrm-payload-id=\"instagram-media-payload-0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"background: white; max-width: 658px; width: calc(100% - 2px); border-radius: 3px; border: 1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219); box-shadow: none; display: block; margin: 0px 0px 12px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s launch marked a giant leap for Musk\u2019s vision of sending settlers to Mars on future Starships. The rocket and its Super Heavy booster are being designed to take on missions ranging from satellite deployments and point-to-point terrestrial travel to moon landings, Mars trips and odysseys to the outer planets.<\/p>\n<p>Far less powerful prototypes have taken low-altitude hops at SpaceX\u2019s Starship construction and testing complex at Boca Chica in South Texas, but this 160-foot-high prototype \u2014 known as SN8 \u2014 was the first to rise several miles into the air, powered by three methane-fueled Raptor engines.<\/p>\n<p>The Federal Aviation Administration cleared the airspace for today\u2019s launch attempt, as well as an attempt on Tuesday that was aborted at the last second when the rocket\u2019s computers detected an engine anomaly.<\/p>\n<p>Today the countdown went through an initial hold at around the two-minute mark, but SpaceX reset the clock for liftoff at 4:45 p.m. CT (2:45 p.m. PT). At the appointed time, Starship SN8 rose slowly off its pad as more than 700,000 online onlookers watched via SpaceX\u2019s webcast.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Starship | SN8 | High-Altitude Flight Test\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ap-BkkrRg-o?start=6460&amp;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Toward the end of the ascent, the Raptor engines powered down, one by one. For this flight, SpaceX was targeting a maximum altitude of 12.5 kilometers (7.8 miles). In a post-flight tweet, Musk pronounced the ascent successful.<\/p>\n<p>For the descent, Starship SN8 pitched into a horizontal \u201cbellyflop\u201d position and used its fins for aerodynamic control. As it approached its landing target, the rocket relit its engines and reoriented itself in a vertical position.<\/p>\n<p>Starship couldn\u2019t slow itself down enough for a graceful touchdown. Instead, it smashed to the ground and blew up in a spectacular fireball \u2014 also known as a rapid unplanned disassembly, or RUD.<\/p>\n<p>That didn\u2019t faze Musk. \u201cFuel header tank pressure was low during landing burn, causing touchdown velocity to be high &amp; RUD, but we got all the data we needed!\u201d he tweeted. \u201cCongrats SpaceX team hell yeah!!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>All in all, Musk said the test exceeded his expectations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSN8 did great! Even reaching apogee would\u2019ve been great, so controlling all way to putting the crater in the right spot was epic!!\u201d he tweeted.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX follows a strategy of building a series of Starship prototypes in quick succession, and subjecting them to tests that often have a fiery end. That\u2019s in contrast with the slow-and-steady approach that Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin has been taking with its New Shepard suborbital spaceship and its orbital-class New Glenn rocket.<\/p>\n<p>Musk is counting on that approach to lead to orbital flights with Starship and the Super Heavy booster by as early as 2021, followed by trips to the moon in as little as two years and the first launch to Mars in the 2024 time frame.<\/p>\n<p>In its closing message for today\u2019s webcast, SpaceX\u2019s team suggested that it won\u2019t be long before another Starship has its day. The message read: \u201cSN9 Up Next!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Musk went even further on Twitter: \u201cMars, here we come!!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SpaceX\u2019s Starship SN8 prototype fires its engines for liftoff from its Texas launch pad. (SpaceX Photo) SpaceX put its Starship super-rocket through its first high-altitude test today \u2014 and although the flight ended in a fiery crash, the performance was impressive enough to draw congratulations from Jeff Bezos, who\u2019s locked in a multibillion-dollar rivalry with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1045,1046,316,4328],"class_list":["post-17617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-elon-musk","tag-jeff-bezos","tag-spacex","tag-spacex-starship"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17617"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17617\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}