SpaceX launches Super Heavy-Starship rocket on 2nd test flight, but fails to get to space

Seven months after a catastrophic failure, SpaceX’s gargantuan Super Heavy-Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, blasted off on its second test flight Saturday in an attempt to boost the unpiloted Starship upper stage into space for the first time — but the mission fell short of that goal.

Shattering the morning calm at SpaceX’s Boca Chica launch site on the Texas Gulf Coast, the Super Heavy’s 33 methane-burning Raptor engines ignited with a torrent of flaming exhaust and a ground-shaking roar at about 8 a.m. ET.

The 397-foot-tall rocket slowly climbed skyward as it gulped 40,000 pounds of methane and liquid oxygen per second, putting on a spectacular show for thousands of area residents, tourists and journalists who looked on from nearby South Padre Island.

However, the Super Heavy booster broke apart soon after launch, and then a short time later, SpaceX announced it had lost the second stage as well, bringing an abrupt and premature end to the flight. 

SpaceX engineer John Insprucker said it appeared that Starship’s self-destruct system triggered towards the end of the ascent.

The launch followed an initial April 20 test flight that ended with a spectacular conflagration four minutes after liftoff when multiple first stage engine failures, problems separating the Starship from the Super Heavy booster and a catastrophic tumble triggered the rocket’s self-destruct system.

In the wake of the mishap, the FAA ordered 63 “corrective” items and SpaceX founder Elon Musk said the company implemented “well over a thousand” changes” to improve safety and performance.

The flight plan called for the Super Heavy first stage to boost the Starship upper stage out of the lower atmosphere. From there, the Starship’s own engines were meant to continue the climb to space, sending the ship was to loop around the planet, re-entering the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean and splashing down north of Hawaii.

A successful flight would have marked a major milestone for both SpaceX and for NASA, which is spending billions for a variant of the Starship to carry Artemis astronauts back to the surface of the moon.

SpaceX is counting on the rocket to vastly expand its fleet of Starlink internet satellites and to power eventual low-cost government and commercial flights to the moon, Mars and beyond.

Multiple test flights will be needed to demonstrate the reliability required for astronaut flights and it’s not yet clear how long that might take or when the first Artemis moon landing might take place.