Ninth test flight of the Spacex starship: pressure loss in the tank, failure to issue simulated loads, but precious data collection for the future.
Spacex he met a new obstacle in his ambitious project of spatial colonization During the ninth trial flight of the Integrated Starship-Super Heavy rockettaken off Tuesday 27 May by Starbase, Texas. After more than 20 minutes of flight, the Starship space ship has lost the ability to maintain the correct orientation, thus compromising the completion of the mission. The flight, called Starship Flight 9represented the third attempt by Spacex to test the updated version of the upper stadium, called Block 2. In the two launch Previous, the S33 and S34 ships had lost control before turning off the six Raptor engines. The version used this time, the S35, managed to go beyond that critical point, but still encountered significant technical problems.
Pressure loss in the tank
During live broadcast, Spacex He suspended the images from the upper stadium for about ten minutes. When the transmission is taken, it was possible to observe the vehicle to start rotating uncontrolledly. Second Elon Muskfounder of Spacex, the Starship He reached the time scheduled for the shutdown of the main engines without important losses of the thermal shield in the climbing phase – progress compared to the previous flight. However, he explained that a loss caused the pressure fall into the main tank during the coast and return phase. “We have collected many useful data to analyze,” he wrote on X.
The flight He also tested for the first time a Booster Super Heavy already used (the B14), which worked correctly in the initial phase: all 33 i Raptor engines They turned on after a brief interruption in the countdown and the separation through hot staging maneuver took place successfully. However, the booster failed to complete the landing maneuver And it seems to have exploded in flight.
No satellites in orbit
Another problem occurred with the load compartment hatch, which did not open correctly. Spacex he had planned to release eight simulated loads of the size of the Satellites Starlink V3but this goal has not been achieved. In addition, the instability of the upper stadium prevented the rekner of one of the Raptor engines in space – A fundamental ability for future Orbital missions.
Despite the difficulties, the mission represented a milestone for spacex also from a technical and operational point of view. The images broadcast by the on -board cameras remained visible for over 45 minutes, offering a rare and precious view of the vehicle during the return phase.
Jared Isaacman, candidate for the direction of NASA and pilot of the Polaris Dawn mission, praised the transparency of Spacex: «It is truly incredible to obtain this type of shot from the extreme environment of the return. Some focus only on failures, but behind Starship and other projects such as New Glenn, Neutron, Vulcan and Terran there is an entire spatial economy in development, with thousands of jobs and billions of investments ».
The next flight in less than a month?
Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA, the US Aerospace Authority) confirmed that she was aware of the anomaly that occurred during the mission and is collaborating with Spacex to investigate the incident. The FAA also reassured that there were no injuries or damage to public properties.
Before the launch, Musk had declared to some newspapers, including Ars Technica, that there was “80% probability of having solved the main problems” Tied to the upper stage, even if to reach full reliability it would have been necessary to redesign part of the engine, including bolts that fix the push chamber at the head of theject. Musk also announced that the third version of the Raptor engine is under development and could be tested by the end of the year. Both version 3 of the ship and that of the Booster will have a deeply magazine design.
Finally, even if an official date has not been communicated for the next flight, Musk has made it known that the intention is to increase the frequency of the launches: “The next three flights should have a faster cadence, about one every three or four weeks”.
