SpaceX shares cause of second Starship rocket failure and what to success in third flight

SpaceX has shared the cause that compromised the second integrated Starship rocket launch back in November and led to mission failure.

During a recent SpaceX annual event, Founder and CEO, Elon Musk revealed that the second Starship test flight failed due to venting too much liquid oxygen propellant near the end of the burn.

However, he said that the venting was only installed in the flight because it wasn’t carrying a payload.

On November 18, 2023, SpaceX launched the second Starship flight test from Starbase in Texas. The flight liftoff from the orbital launch pad with all of its 33 Raptor engines.

Following the launch, the integrated flight successfully performed hot-staging and the second stage also fired its six raptor engines.

It was the first time when Starship achieved hot staging but the booster occurred a rapid unscheduled disassembly (RUD) and exploded in the air.

However, the second stage kept on flying with its engine taking the Starship into orbit at an altitude of 150 km and a velocity of 24,000 km/h. After around 8 minutes of this solo journey, Starship lost connection to the mission control and also occurred with RUD.

“Flight 2 almost made it to orbit, if it had a payload, it would have made it to orbit because the reason that it didn’t quite make it to orbit was we vented the liquid oxygen, and the liquid oxygen led to a fire and an explosion.” Said Musk at the event.

SpaceX Founder and CEO Addressing Starship Missions at 2023 annual meeting with employees at Starbase

For now, there are further details revealed on this matter but there’s something that you need to know about the danger of

Both Starship and Super Heavy Booster use Liquid Oxygen (LOX).  is a powerful oxidizer and supports combustion. If LOX comes into contact with a fuel source in the presence of an ignition source such as a spark or extreme heat, it could cause a massive explosion.

Third flight:

SpaceX is now preparing for a third integrated flight test and aiming to achieve the orbit.

“I think we’ve got a really good shot of reaching orbit with Flight 3” added SpaceX chief.

The company has already conducted pre-launch engine tests and a past report reveals that the company could get FAA approval in February to fire the third Starship flight test.

(via – Spacenews)