SpaceX’s Starship V3 ends in giant explosion after test flight win
A test flight win for SpaceX’s giant Starship has thrilled Elon Musk’s team and a large crowd of observers despite the huge explosion upon splashdown as the company prepares to go public
READING LEVEL: GREEN
SpaceX’s Starship V3 has had a successful test flight around the Earth, ending in a deliberate and spectacular fireball.
The 50-storey tall spaceship — the biggest and most powerful of its kind — took off from Starbase, Texas around 5.30pm on Friday CDT* (8.30am Saturday AEST) and proceeded to do a suborbital* flight around the globe.
Lift-off was successful, with the megarocket powering through the failure of one of its 33 Raptor engines.
Shortly after, the massive first-stage booster detached from the upper stage spacecraft (Ship 39) and hurtled back to Earth, landing in The Gulf of Mexico. SpaceX had opted not to risk catching the booster at the launch tower.
Ship 39 also lost one of its six engines during the flight, but its flight computers adapted by burning the remaining five engines a bit longer to reach space.
While coasting, it deployed* 22 dummy Starlink satellites.
The ship survived re-entry and made a dramatic but controlled landing in the Indian Ocean about an hour after launch.
SpaceX deemed the flight a success but according to an AFP report, the company's spokesperson Dan Huot said on the livestream that the booster did not complete a burn required for a controlled landing, meaning the craft was unable make a precision touchdown as hoped.
Nonetheless, this latest test flight forms part of ongoing trials and SpaceX has repeatedly stated that both explosions and mistakes are known factors in the company’s research and development “fail fast” strategy.
As widely reported, the SpaceX strategy of “rapid iterative* development” builds prototypes* quickly and absorbs added risk during test flights in the belief that it’s a faster and cheaper model for engineers to learn from and adjust Starship’s design.
Founded and run by tech billionaire Elon Musk, SpaceX has applied to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in June.
According to a CNN report, the initial public offering* (IPO) is set to be the largest in Wall Street history, with a target valuation of up to US $1.75 trillion.
There’s massive market hype around the IPO and some analysts argue that the astronomical target massively overvalues the company, which currently operates at a net loss*.
And there’s a lot more than time and money riding on these test flights. NASA hopes to use this version of Starship to take astronauts to the moon as early as 2028, as part of the Artemis* program and with President Trump’s support.
POLL
GLOSSARY
- CDT: Central Daylight Time is five hours behind Greenwich Mean Time and is used in the northern hemisphere summer in the central parts of the US and Canada
- suborbital: a rocket or missile having a flight path that’s less than one complete orbit of Earth
- deployed: used something or someone in a specific situation or mission, especially in an effective way
- iterative: doing something again and again, usually to improve it
- prototypes: the first examples of a machine or other industrial product, from which all later forms are developed
- initial public offering: the IPO is the first sale of a company’s shares to the public on the stock market
- net loss: the amount by which a company’s total costs are more than its total sales during a particular period
- Artemis: in Ancient Greek mythology, Artemis is the sister of Apollo, goddess of the moon and the hunt
EXTRA READING
Earth’s problem with space junk
Trump’s AI alien after UFO claims
QUICK QUIZ
- How long did the test flight last?
- What did Ship 39 deploy while coasting?
- Where did Ship 39 land?
- What is the target valuation for SpaceX according to a CNN report on the IPO filing?
- When does NASA hope to use this version of Starship to take astronauts to the moon?
LISTEN TO THIS STORY
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Timeline of SpaceX Starship V3 test flight
After reading the Kids News article, sequence the six key events of the SpaceX test flight and put them in an easy to read and understand timeline.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Science, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking
2. Extension
What issues can you see arising with further test missions?
How are these space flights regulated to ensure civilian safety?
Do you think SpaceX will achieve its goal of sending astronauts to the moon by 2028?
Time: allow 10 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Science, Design and Technologies, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking
VCOP ACTIVITY
I spy nouns
Nouns are places, names (of people and objects), and time (months or days of the week).
How many nouns can you find in the article?
Can you sort them into places, names and time?
Pick three nouns and add an adjective (describing word) to the nouns.