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Starship S34 and Super Heavy booster B15 lifted off from SpaceX’s Boca Chica launch pad at 5:30 p.m. Thursday for Flight 8, the company’s eighth, uncrewed suborbital test flight.
As with Flight 7 on Jan. 16, the Starship was lost shortly after liftoff.
The launch took place against a stiff south wind and under mostly clear skies. For the third time, the stage-one booster was successfully “caught” at the launch tower as it came back to the launch pad for a landing, about seven minutes after the launch and separation from stage-two Starship.
SpaceX’s first booster catch took place place on Oct. 13 with Flight 5, and the second on Jan. 13 with Flight 7, which also saw the loss of Starship during its ascent over the Caribbean due to a propellant leak, subsequent fire and triggering of the ship’s auto-destruct system.
Starship S34 was on its trajectory toward a planned soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean off the western coast of Australia. However, before nine minutes into the flight the ship lost engines and altitude control, dooming the vehicle. A spokesman announced shortly afterward that mission control had lost contact with the ship.
The Federal Aviation Administration announced last Friday that after completing a required comprehensive safety review, SpaceX would be granted the necessary license authorization to allowed to conduct Flight 8, even while the mishap investigation into Flight 7 was still open. The FAA said it is overseeing the investigation, which SpaceX is leading.
“The FAA determined SpaceX met all safety, environmental and other licensing requirements for the suborbital test flight,” the agency said.
With the loss of Starship S34, the FAA may require another mishap investigation.
SpaceX said that after completing its investigation of the loss of Starship during Flight 7, a number of hardware and operational changes were made to the ship to increase its reliability. Eventually, the company will attempt to retrieve Starship as well rather than ditching it in the ocean.
“The upcoming flight will fly the same suborbital trajectory as previous missions and will target objectives not reached on the previous test, including Starship’s first payload deployment and multiple reentry experiments geared towards returning the upper stage to the launch site for catch,” SpaceX said before Thursday’s launch.