SpaceX’s Starship, renowned as the largest and most potent rocket globally, achieved orbital speed for the first time on Thursday during its historic third test flight from South Texas. A diverse crowd of spectators, including Spring Break revelers, rocket enthusiasts, and SpaceX supporters, gathered along the southern shores of South Padre Island and neighboring areas to witness the momentous event.
Approximately 5 miles (8 kilometers) south of the onlookers, SpaceX’s colossal Starship vehicle lifted off at 9:25 a.m. EDT (1325 GMT) from the company’s facilities near Boca Chica Beach.
Elon Musk, the visionary behind SpaceX, took to the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to announce the successful launch. “Starship reached orbital velocity,” he declared, extending his congratulations to the SpaceX team. Notably, the launch coincided with the 22nd anniversary of SpaceX’s establishment in 2002.
While neither the Starship vehicle nor its Super Heavy booster survived until their intended splashdown, SpaceX officials highlighted that the test flight achieved several key objectives. Cheers erupted from the South Padre crowd as Starship’s 33 first-stage Raptor engines ignited, illuminating the dim morning sky and enveloping the vehicle in a plume of dust and smoke. Within moments, the towering 400-foot (122 meters) rocket ascended from the plume, rapidly ascending into the sky.
“Although this flight has just begun, we’ve already reached new milestones,” stated SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot in a livestream shortly after liftoff. “We now have a Starship not only in space but also in its coast phase towards space.”
Today’s launch, designated Integrated Flight Test-3 (IFT-3), marked the third test mission for the fully assembled Starship. The previous two Starship launches, conducted last year, ended abruptly with explosions before achieving their mission goals. However, insights gained from these initial flights aided SpaceX engineers in preparing Starship for future success.
Improvements implemented between IFT-1 and IFT-2 included the introduction of a “hot staging” technique. This method involves igniting the upper-stage engines before the separation of Starship’s first-stage booster, also known as Super Heavy. The successful execution of the hot staging maneuver during IFT-2, as well as today’s test, demonstrates progress in Starship’s development.
In the skies above, Starship’s two stages separated approximately 2 minutes and 45 seconds after liftoff. The upper-stage spacecraft, standing at 165 feet tall (50 meters), continued its journey into space while Super Heavy initiated preparations for a boostback burn to adjust its trajectory. Following the staging burn, Super Heavy’s velocity was reversed, with plans for a landing burn over the Gulf of Mexico shortly after. However, it seems that the engines of Super Heavy did not reignite as intended, resulting in the loss of the booster.
“We encountered issues with igniting all the engines as planned, resulting in the loss of the booster,” Huot explained. “We’ll need to analyze the data to determine the exact cause of the anomaly.”
SpaceX remains committed to achieving full reusability for Starship and intends to recover and relaunch its Super Heavy boosters, similar to its Falcon 9 rockets. In the future, the launch tower of Starship will feature two “chopstick” arms to catch the returning Super Heavy booster. However, for IFT-3, it was anticipated that the Super Heavy booster would splash down in the Gulf.