SpaceX Launched its Starship Megarocket into Space in 3rd Test Flight This Morning (on SpaceX’s 22nd Birthday)

(Boca Chica, Texas) SpaceX’s Starship, the world’s largest and most powerful rocket, successfully completed its third test flight this morning, lifting off at 9.25am EST (8.25am CST, 13.25.00 GMT) from Starbase in Texas, and reached orbital speed for the first time.

Photo of SpaceX’s Starship launching in this morning’s test flight, Integrated Flight Test-3 (IFT-3), courtesy of SpaceX’s account on X, @spacex.

SpaceX Founder and CEO Elon Musk posted on X at 9.40am, “Starship reached orbital velocity! Congratulations @SpaceX team!!”

In later posts, Musk wrote that SpaceX’s Starship rocket, which is designed to be reusable, like SpaceX’s Falcon 9, will “take humanity to Mars” and “make life multiplanetary.”

Notably, today is SpaceX’s 22nd birthday (the company was incorporated in El Segundo, California on March 14, 20220).

Upon Starship’s launch – near SpaceX’s manufacturing and test launch facilities near Boca Chica Beach – cheers erupted from a crowd of hundreds of Spring Break spectators, rocket launch enthusiasts and SpaceX fans gathered along the southern shores of South Padre Island. Once Starship’s 33 first-stage Raptor engines were ignited, Integrated Flight Test-3 (IFT-3) began as the 400-foot tall Starship rocket climbed skyward.

Photo of Starship in flight courtesy of SpaceX Founder and CEO Elon Musk’s account on X, @elonmusk.

While neither the Starship vehicle nor its Super Heavy booster survived all the way through to their intended splashdown, SpaceX officials said the test flight achieved several of its key goals during the flight, according to Space.com.

"This flight pretty much just started, but we’re farther than we’ve ever been before," SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot said just after liftoff in a livestream. "We’ve got a starship, not just in space, but on its coast phase into space."

Last year, the first and second Starship launches both ended with explosions, with the vehicles detonating prior to the completion of each flight’s mission objectives, but provided data to help SpaceX engineers ready for future Starship success, per Space.com.

Photo SpaceX’s Starship and Super Heavy rocket launching on its third test flight from Starbase near Boca Chica Beach in South Texas this morning, on March 14, 2024, courtesy of John Dinner/Future via Space.com.

This morning’s test flight is part of what SpaceX refers to as a “rapid iterative development approach” that has been the basis for all of the company’s major innovative advancements, including Falcon, Dragon and Starlink.

“Recursive improvement is essential as we work to build a fully reusable transportation system capable of carrying both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, help humanity return to the Moon, and ultimately travel to Mars and beyond,” reads SpaceX’s release about today’s flight test.

Throughout IFT-3, Starship accomplished a number of major milestones and firsts, per SpaceX:

• “For the second time, all 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy Booster started up successfully and completed a full-duration burn during ascent.
• Starship executed its second successful hot-stage separation, powering down all but three of Super Heavy’s Raptor engines and successfully igniting the six second stage Raptor engines before separating the vehicles.
• Following separation, the Super Heavy booster successfully completed its flip maneuver and completed a full boostback burn to send it towards its splashdown point in the Gulf of Mexico.
• Super Heavy successfully lit several engines for its first ever landing burn before the vehicle experienced a RUD (that’s SpaceX-speak for “rapid unscheduled disassembly”). The booster’s flight concluded at approximately 462 meters in altitude and just under seven minutes into the mission.
• Starship’s six second stage Raptor engines all started successfully and powered the vehicle to its expected orbit, becoming the first Starship to complete its full-duration ascent burn.
• While coasting, Starship accomplished several of the flight test’s additional objectives, including the opening and closing of its payload door (aka the pez dispenser,) and initiating a propellant transfer demonstration. Starship did not attempt its planned on-orbit relight of a single Raptor engine due to vehicle roll rates during coast. Results from these demonstrations will come after postflight data review is complete.
• Starship went on to experience its first ever entry from space, providing valuable data on heating and vehicle control during hypersonic reentry. Live views of entry were made possible by Starlink terminals operating on Starship.
• The flight test’s conclusion came during entry, with the last telemetry signals received via Starlink from Starship at approximately 49 minutes into the mission.”