Headline Roundup • March 14th, 2024
SpaceX's Starship Launches Third Test Flight From Texas
Summary from the AllSides News Team
On Thursday morning, SpaceX launched its third test flight from Texas and carried out a key stage-separation measure a few minutes later.
Key Details: The Starship rocket, which is taller than the Statue of Liberty, launched near Boca Chica on the Gulf Coast of Texas. It was an unmanned flight. The test is thought to have been the most successful of the three, though the rocket is reportedly likely to have broken apart.
Key Quotes: “SpaceX has come a long way,” said SpaceX's Elon Musk via X, formerly Twitter. "We did lose the booster,” said SpaceX spokesman Dan Huot. “We’ll have to go through the data to figure out exactly what happened, obviously. So be on the lookout for information about that.”
For Context: SpaceX's first two flights lasted only two minutes before exploding over the Gulf of Mexico. Since then, SpaceX's Elon Musk has directed the company to make thousands of fixes and upgrades to improve the odds of a successful flight.
How the Media Covered it: Sources across the political spectrum noted that NASA has invested in the Starship system and plans to use it for the first human landings on the moon since Apollo 17.
Featured Coverage of this Story
AP Photo/Eric Gay
SpaceX’s mega rocket blasted off on another test flight Thursday, this time with the spacecraft reaching enough speed to coast toward its finish line halfway around the world.
It outperformed the previous two test flights, which both ended in explosions minutes after liftoff.
Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, soared from the southern tip of Texas near the Mexican border before it headed out over the Gulf of Mexico. No people or satellites were on board.
Minutes later, the booster separated seamlessly from the spaceship and splashed...
The SpaceX Starship, a futuristic craft designed to eventually send astronauts to the moon and beyond, roared into the sky from Texas on Thursday, a third test launch for Elon Musk's company that has carried it farther than two previous flights that ended with explosions.
The two-stage rocketship, taller than the Statue of Liberty, blasted off from the company's Starbase launch site near Boca Chica on the Gulf Coast of Texas near Brownsville, on an uncrewed flight to space. It executed a key stage-separation maneuver nearly three minutes later, 44 miles...
SpaceX launched its massive Starship rocket for the third time on Thursday from its private launch site in South Texas. The launch took place at 9:25 a.m. Eastern time. The spacecraft separated from its booster as planned and was headed toward a splashdown in the Indian Ocean about an hour after liftoff.
Starship is the world’s most powerful rocket, composed of two parts: the Super Heavy booster and the Starship spacecraft. It is designed to be fully reusable, landing back at its launch site. SpaceX launches the vehicle from its...
