This Was A Far Tougher Flight Test Than Previous Missions

SpaceX launched its ninth flight test of a complete Starship vehicle nearly on time after a few minutes of holds before getting a move on. 

This was a far tougher flight test than previous missions, especially for the booster which was subjected to some aggressive and adverse test conditions... which it did not survive before its scheduled landing in the Gulf of America. This was the second flight of the booster... it having been caught by the chop sticks mechanism back at the 7th launch, and its sacrifice this time around was intentional.  

An attempt to deploy Starlink satellite simulators went awry when the deployment mechanism failed, as well. 

The upper stage ‘Ship’ fared considerably better than it has in the last two launch tests until its attitude control failed as a result of fuel venting... resulting in something of a Zero G spin. This condition cancelled a number of other tests, including a Raptor engine relight in vacuum. 

The flight test included several experiments focused on enabling Starship’s upper stage to return to the launch site. A significant number of tiles had been removed from Starship to stress-test vulnerable areas across the vehicle during reentry. Multiple metallic tile options, including one with active cooling, tested alternative materials for protecting Starship during reentry. On the sides of the vehicle, functional catch fittings are installed and will test the fittings’ thermal and structural performance. The entire ship's tile line also received a smoothed and tapered edge to address hot spots observed during reentry on Starship’s sixth flight test. Starship’s reentry profile is designed to intentionally stress the structural limits of the upper stage’s rear flaps while at the point of maximum entry dynamic pressure. 

The venting ultimately resulted in full loss of attitude control and the inability to control the reentry of the vehicle to its planned splashdown in the Indian Ocean and the demise of the vehicle. The aerospace world will be looking forward to the tenth test of this program... 

FMI: www.spacex.com