DESIGN
A&D: SPACE
The launch was an overwhelming success for its first flight, despite the initial launch being postponed due to technical faults, the rocket’s eventual termination, and Musk’s early concerns, in which he stated: “It’s a very risky flight. It’s the first launch of a very complicated, gigantic rocket … there’s a million ways this rocket could fail.” But overall, Musk was optimistic about the launch, deeming it an overall success: “Obviously not a complete success, but still nonetheless successful.” He added that the goal of the test was “to learn a lot, and we learned a lot.” Musk continued by teasing more test flights in 2023. A timeline of the launch
As the clock ticked over to 8:33am CDT (14:33pm BST), all 33 of the raptor engines fired up, and at T+6 seconds, Starship had lift-off. The launch quickly deviated from its intended path, evident as the rocket began gaining altitude. Credit should be given to SpaceX, who displayed informative graphics on its webcast throughout the launch, highlighting vehicle speed, altitude, propellant levels, and engine status – showing in real-time what was going wrong. At T+15 seconds, the graphics
revealed that three of the Raptor engines were not operational as expected – two
adjacent engines in the outer ring and one central engine capable of gimballing for attitude control. These three engines were never engaged as the rocket fired up, deemed too risky to ignite in the final stages.
As the flight progressed, additional Raptor engines shut down, resulting in at least six engines being out of service at various stages. There was also debris observed near the booster’s base around T+30 seconds, accompanied by some visible flaring in the plume. Despite these factors, the rocket continued to accelerate and make its ascent, powered by the remaining Raptor engines and the increasingly enthusiastic cheers of the SpaceX employees at the company’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California, overpowering the webcast commentary. The vehicle pushed through max q and continued its flight still. However, around two and a half minutes into the flight, the vehicle began a slow tumble. Initially, the webcast commentators speculated that this may have been a part of the stage separation process, as per SpaceX’s pre-launch timeline, which indicated Starships’s separation from Super Heavy at T+2:52. Despite the anticipation, expected stage separation did not occur, and the slow tumble persisted, albeit with the vehicle remaining structurally sound. As the cheers at Hawthorne
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