spacetoday.net: SpaceX launches third Starship test flight

Posted: Sun, Mar 17, 2024, 9:02 AM ET (1302 GMT)
Starship liftoff on third flight (SpaceX)

SpaceX launched Starship on a third, mostly successful test flight Thursday. The Starship/Super Heavy vehicle lifted off from the company's Starbase facility in South Texas at 9:25 am EDT (1325 GMT). The launch placed Starship on its planned suborbital trajectory, where it performed tests such as opening a payload bay door and starting a propellant transfer demonstration. The vehicle reentered over the Indian Ocean but appeared to break up at an altitude of about 65 kilometers nearly 50 minutes after liftoff. The Super Heavy booster also broke up during a landing burn over the Gulf of Mexico. Although the vehicle did not complete all its test objectives, SpaceX still considered the flight successful, an assessment shared by NASA.