Yesterday morning, the largest and most powerful rocket the world has ever seen, Starship, roared off the launchpad at Starbase Texas, USA. This event is the result of more than a decade of intense development by SpaceX, one of the world's leading spacecraft manufacturers.
Founded in 2002 by South African-born businessman Elon Musk, SpaceX's biggest goal has been to find a way for humans to build a society on Mars. Since then, SpaceX has and continues to lead the spaceflight industry with its cutting-edge innovations. One of the most notable developments that SpaceX is currently working on is Starship, a fully reusable spacecraft that can carry more than 100 tonnes of payload to orbit.
When completed and operational, Starship will be the largest and most powerful rocket to ever be in operation, standing at 120 meters and producing a mind-boggling 1500 tonnes of thrust. It stands almost 9m taller and produces almost 2 times the thrust of the current holder of both records: The recently flown SLS, built by NASA. Starship will also be the world's first fully reusable spacecraft, with every part of it able to land back on Earth, be refuelled, and reflown.
The launch yesterday marked a major milestone in SpaceX's development of Starship. After multiple prototypes and testing of each component of the spacecraft. SpaceX finally assembled a full working prototype of Starship in its first attempt to reach space.
Things were going quite smoothly at first, with the colossal sliver giant heaving itself off the launchpad. However, it was soon clear that not all was going to plan, as the live stream showed that 3 of the 33 Raptor rocket engines powering the colossal first stage either shut down seconds after liftoff or did not light at all. Soon after, several more Raptor engines shut down and soon the Starship entered an uncontrollable spin. The onboard flight termination systems were triggered and Starship exploded into a giant white cloud of supercooled rocket fuel.
Despite the flight not going to plan, SpaceX highlights that the test flight was still a massive success, as it managed to get valuable flight data which it can use to improve the following test flights scheduled in a few months' time. Once it's operational, SpaceX plans to use Starship to transport humans and cargo to the moon, Mars, and beyond. With SpaceX's astounding rate of progression, maybe humanity's dream of a space-faring future isn't too far away.
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