Watch Starship’s second integrated flight test → https://t.co/bJFjLCiTbK https://t.co/cahoRQ72lm

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 18, 2023

SpaceX flew Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, for the second time ever today – and even though both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage had to be blown up in mid-air, it was still a huge success for the company best known for taking a rapidly iterative approach to hardware development.

Although the upper stage (which is also called Starship) did not complete the full flight plan, which would’ve seen it glide halfway around the world and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, the mission had a notable handful of major wins.

The rocket lifted off at 7:03 AM CST from SpaceX’s massive Starship development and launch facilities near Boca Chica, Texas. At liftoff, all 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy booster were lit and none went out during the mission, which is a huge improvement from the first launch, which lost around six engines between lift-off and flight.

The launch infrastructure, including the orbital launch mount that the vehicle sits on prior to lift-off, also seemed to have fared better this time around. This suggests that the new water deluge system, which floods the launch area with water at engine ignition, seemed to have successfully protected the infrastructure. (During the first launch, the power of the Raptor engines igniting sent huge chunks of concrete and dust into the air, effectively destroying the orbital launch mount.)

The other major win came during stage separation. The first Starship orbital flight test didn’t get this far. But the second time around, using a novel stage separation technique known as “hot staging,” where Starship’s engines actually ignite to push the Booster away, SpaceX managed to pull it off.

Shortly after this point, the the automated flight termination system onboard the Super Heavy booster was triggered, leading to a “rapid unscheduled disassembly” – AKA, it was blown up. It is not clear why this occurred, though SpaceX hosts on the company’s live launch webcast said the team will be able to use the data from the moments post-hot staging and pre-explosion to better understand the booster’s performance.

This same fate eventually came to the Starship upper stage. Before second engine cut-off, when Starship would’ve powered down its six engines and continued its ascent, SpaceX hosts announced that they had lost data from the second stage. The hosts then said that the automated FTS was activated – though again, it’s unclear why.

Developing…