SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Sunday said that he has inspected the Starship launch pad at Boca Chica after the rocket’s second test flight and it is in great condition, contrary to its state after the rocket’s first flight in April.
What Happened: Starship lifted off for the second time on Saturday. The vehicle lifted off and made it successfully through stage separation. The booster exploded soon after and the spacecraft too eventually lost contact with SpaceX after climbing to an altitude of nearly 150 kilometers.
“With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today's test will help us improve Starship's reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multiplanetary,” the company said afterward.
SpaceX conducted the first test launch of Starship on April 20. The rocket exploded in less than four minutes after take-off, damaging the launch pad at Starbase and raining down dust on Port Isabel, Texas residents. Explaining the impact, Musk said that SpaceX relied on Fondag for the test launch. Though the rocket manufacturer had commenced the construction of a water-cooled steel plate to go under the launch mount months ago, it was not ready in time for the launch, Musk said.
For the recent second launch, however, the company installed the steel plate and it has seemingly done the trick.
“Just inspected the Starship launch pad and it is in great condition!,” Musk wrote on X on Sunday while adding that the company does not need to refurbish it before the next launch.
“Congrats to Spacex team & contractors for engineering & building such a robust system so rapidly!,” he added.
Why It Matters: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Saturday confirmed a ‘mishap’ while adding that it will oversee an investigation into the underlying cause.
“A mishap occurred during the SpaceX Starship OFT-2 launch from Boca Chica, Texas, on Saturday, Nov. 18. The anomaly resulted in a loss of the vehicle. No injuries or public property damage have been reported,” the agency said.
Starship, SpaceX's ambitious project composed of the super heavy rocket and the starship spacecraft, aims to create a fully reusable transportation system for crew and cargo missions to Earth’s orbit, the Moon, and Mars. The vehicle is key to Musk's dreams of making life ‘multiplanetary' and also to U.S. dreams of landing humans again on the Moon after the Apollo missions.
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