Starship Super Heavy Finally Flies for the Second Time, and Hot-Stages for the First Time on IFT-2!

SpaceX

After an almost 7-month wait following the first flight test on April 20, Starship Super Heavy finally embarked on its second launch yesterday...safely lifting off from Starbase in Texas on 33 fully-functional Raptor 2 engines at 7 AM, CST (5 AM, PST), and meeting one of its main objectives of successfully conducting a hot-stage separation between Starship 25 and Booster 9.

Unfortunately, Integrated Flight Test 2 (IFT-2) still fell short of its primary goal—which was for Starship 25 to take a suborbital lap around the world, concluding in a splashdown hundreds of miles off the coast of Hawaii. Also, Booster 9 was destroyed by its autonomous flight termination system (FTS) moments after it successfully separated from Ship 25 two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff.

Booster 9 was supposed to make a controlled water landing into the Gulf of Mexico, while Ship 25 itself was also obliterated by its own auto FTS minutes after stage separation.

As with the case with the first Integrated Flight Test (IFT-1) last spring, SpaceX will hold off on future Starship launches as it conducts a joint investigation with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) into IFT-2's outcome...since it failed to reach Hawaii. Hopefully, this so-called 'mishap' inquiry by the FAA won't last as long as the first one (seeing as how Starship's Orbital Launch Mount and Orbital Launch Tower basically remain unscathed due to the new water deluge system that was installed months after IFT-1)—and the next Super Heavy vehicle will embark on Integrated Flight Test 3 in no time!

Stay tuned.


SpaceX


SpaceX


SpaceX


SpaceX


SpaceX


SpaceX


SpaceX


SpaceX


SpaceX

Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting second integrated flight test of Starship!

Starship successfully lifted off under the power of all 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy Booster and made it through stage separation pic.twitter.com/JnCvLAJXPi

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 18, 2023

Starship’s hot-stage separation was the first time this technique has been done successfully with a vehicle of this size pic.twitter.com/nlfhcPo8m7

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 19, 2023

This information is preliminary and subject to change:

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 FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) November 18, 2023