Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more! Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. "You're not going to reach it in a it in a straight line," he added. "We've said there's going to be bumps, there's going to be turns. But seeing that ship in space today was a hell of a moment for us, so congratulations to every single person who put time, effort, sweat, anything, into that rocket." On Flight 7 and Flight 8, Super Heavy performed flawlessly, acing its engine burn and then returning to Starbase for a catch by the launch tower's "chopstick" arms. But Ship had problems: It exploded less than 10 minutes after launch on both missions, raining debris down on the Turks and Caicos Islands and The Bahamas, respectively. Though the two Ship failures occurred at similar times during flight, they had different root causes, according to SpaceX. A powerful "harmonic response" likely led to propellant leaks on Flight 7, whereas a hardware failure in a Raptor engine was responsible for the Flight 8 fireworks, the company determined. SpaceX took pains to minimize the chances that such issues would crop up on future flights, making significant hardware changes and conducting a number of engine trials on the ground in Texas. Flight 9 put such work to the test — and it broke new ground as well. Starship rises into the South Texas skies on Flight 9. (Image credit: SpaceX) The mission lifted off from Starbase today at 7:37 p.m. EDT (2337 GMT; 6:37 p.m. local Texas time), sending the 40-story-tall rocket into the Texas sky atop a pillar of flame. It was a milestone launch, marking the first-ever reuse of a Super Heavy booster; this one earned its wings on Flight 7 in January. (SpaceX swapped out just four of its Raptors after that mission, meaning that 29 of the engines that flew today were flight-proven.) "Lessons learned from the first booster refurbishment and subsequent performance in flight will enable faster turnarounds of future reflights as progress is made towards vehicles requiring no hands-on maintenance between launches," the company wrote in a Flight 9 mission preview. The Super Heavy had a somewhat different job to do today; it conducted a variety of experiments on its way back down to Earth. For example, the booster performed a controlled rather than randomized return flip and hit the atmosphere at a different angle. "By increasing the amount of atmospheric drag on the vehicle, a higher angle of attack can result in a lower descent speed, which in turn requires less propellant for the initial landing burn," SpaceX wrote in the mission preview. "Getting real-world data on how the booster is able to control its flight at this higher angle of attack will contribute to improved performance on future vehicles, including the next generation of Super Heavy." These experiments complicated Super Heavy's flight profile compared to previous missions, making another "chopsticks" catch at Starbase a tougher proposition. So, rather than risk damaging the launch tower and other infrastructure, SpaceX decided to bring the booster back for a "hard splashdown" in the Gulf of Mexico on Flight 9. That was the plan, anyway; Super Heavy didn't quite make it that far. The booster broke apart about 6 minutes and 20 seconds into today's flight, just after beginning its landing burn. "Confirmation that the booster did demise," Huot said during the Flight 9 webcast. Super Heavy's flight ended "before it was able to get through landing burn," he added. Related stories: