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SpaceX giant 'Starship' rocket launches from Texas, but fails to complete test flight [1]
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Date: 2023-04-20
A boat passes in front of the SpaceX Starship rocket near South Padre Island, Texas. April 17, 2023
If things continue to go well, SpaceX is only minutes away from the first test flight of its massive “Starship” rocket, which features a booster called “Super Heavy” with twice the power of the Saturn V. The rocket was built in an extremely unusual way. It didn’t come from a clean room. It’s not made from exotic materials. It was welded from hoops of stainless steel, with much of the work taking place outdoors or inside the open “bays” of the facility SpaceX has constructed near the small town of Boca Chica, Texas.
Today’s launch is meant to test the ability of the rocket to reach orbit. If all goes as planned, the booster will ditch in the Gulf of Mexico, while the upper stage (also, confusingly, known as Starship) will fall into the ocean near Hawaii.
Odds that all this will go as designed are likely quite low, which SpaceX admits. This is very much an experimental flight, with many things that have never been done before. If they make it off the pad without destroying the pad, that’s likely to be seen as a “win.” SpaceX has multiple iterations of Starship standing by for additional test flights.
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