SpaceX’s Starship underwent its second test flight on November 18. While the launch was not without its flaws, the flight was successful enough to receive praise from a number of important figures. The test mission took off from SpaceX’s Starbase site in South Texas, with the goal of sending the upper stage of the rocket most of the way around the world. Although the upper stage exploded about eight minutes into the flight, it did notch a number of important milestones leading up to that point that drew favorable attention from NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
NASA has significant interest in the success of the Starship, as it has been chosen as the first crewed lander for the Artemis program. This program aims to establish a sustainable human presence on and around the moon by the end of the 2020s. If everything goes according to plan, Starship will deliver NASA astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time, on Artemis 3, which is targeted for late 2025.
Despite the explosion, Starship made significant strides towards the exciting future of space exploration on this flight. For example, all 33 of the Raptor engines on its Super Heavy first stage ignited. The booster successfully separated from the Starship upper stage as planned, but soon after, the booster itself exploded. Additionally, the Starship reached space and reached a maximum altitude of 91 miles (148 kilometers), marking an improvement over its debut flight that took off from Starbase on April 20.
In the aftermath of this flight, figures such as former Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield and billionaire tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who has a private mission to Earth orbit and plans to fly on the Starship as part of the Polaris Program, offered praise and congratulations to SpaceX and its CEO Elon Musk for the progress made.
