(AmericanProsperity.com) – The SpaceX Starship rocket took off from a SpaceX spaceport called Starbase located on the Gulf of Mexico in Boca Chica, Texas. However, on the latest trip, the Starship flew around the globe and did not give off any signal at the final stages of the test flight as it came back to Earth’s atmosphere.
They didn’t expect to recover the spacecraft as it was heading into the Indian Ocean on its return, but they believe that it either burned up or came apart upon re-entering the atmosphere.
SpaceX’s Dan Huot said “The ship has been lost. So no splashdown today, but again, it’s incredible to see how much further we got this time around.” These first two attempts lasted under 10 minutes for both, whereas the third rocket launch lasted fifty minutes.
SpaceX has said that these launches are simply tests and they are not expecting perfect outcomes, but doing it this way allows them to “maximize learning.” They also said that doing these flight tests can help them develop a more robust and better rocket.
One of the outcomes they are hoping will happen is that both pieces of the rockets will be salvageable upon returning to Earth, which will be much more efficient when it comes to the cost of these rockets for each mission.
Elon Musk has stated that he hopes to take humans (civilians) to the moon using his rockets and even NASA has contracted SpaceX in order to send astronauts to the moon, including the first woman as soon as 2026.
Even though the SpaceX Starship’s third test ended the way it did, this is still a successful launch as it shows that the rockets are not far from being operational. However, there is still a lot of testing that needs to be done as Musk says that it will need to fly hundreds of missions without people aboard before it’ll be able to carry humans.
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