The Super Heavy booster — the first stage, or bottommost part, of the launch vehicle roared to life and soared out over the Gulf of Mexico. The Super Heavy booster burned through most of its fuel and broke away from the Starship spacecraft, the upper stage that rides atop the Super Heavy. The booster was expected to make an autonomous, controlled landing in the ocean, but the booster “didn’t light all the engines that we expected and we did lose the booster,” Huot said. SpaceX said it’s working to get video of what occurred before the booster hit the water. But the the booster made it farther into flight than a Super Heavy booster has previously made it. On the past two flights, Super Heavy was destroyed midair before it had a chance to try out landing maneuvers. Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration will investigate the “mishap” involving both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship spacecraft. The agency licenses commercial rocket launches and oversees mishap investigations when spacecraft are lost during flight. Such investigations are routine and carried out whether or not SpaceX expects a loss of the vehicle. “A mishap occurred during the SpaceX Starship OFT-3 mission that launched from Boca Chica, Texas, on March 14,” according to a statement released by the FAA. “No public injuries or public property damage have been reported. The FAA is overseeing the SpaceX-led mishap investigation to ensure the company complies with its FAA-approved mishap investigation plan and other regulatory requirements.” The third test flight occurred on SpaceX’s 22nd anniversary, according to the livestream. Aiming for orbital speeds SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said a primary goal of these early test flights is to get Starship to orbital speeds — velocities quick enough to allow the spacecraft to enter a stable orbit around Earth. Typically, such a feat requires speeds topping 17,500 miles per hour (28,000 kilometers per hour). Starship reached its orbital speeds goal and did not aim to actually enter orbit on this flight. Starship tests and tech demos Starship burned its engine for about six minutes before it entered a coasting phase. The spacecraft ran through a few key tests and tech demonstrations. First, Starship reached speeds close to what would be required to put the vehicle in orbit. The Starship’s payload door — a hatch that must open for the spacecraft to deploy satellites into space after reaching orbit — also swung open before resealing in a crucial test of that mechanism. The SpaceX Starship rocket system lifts off from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, for its third integrated test flight on Thursday. Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images SpaceX also carried out what the company is calling a “propellant transfer demonstration.” The goal was to move some of the propellant on board the Starship vehicle from one tank to another, according to a December email from NASA explaining the test. SpaceX engineers designed that demo to begin hashing out how Starship will be refueled on future missions while it’s in orbit. The team will “need to do some data review” of both the payload door opening and the propellant transfer demonstration to determine how successful each test was, according to the live broadcast. However, after reaching several milestones, SpaceX revealed it opted not to attempt to reignite Starship’s engines after a half-hour coasting phase that was originally planned for the flight test. Starship was on a “pretty steep trajectory,” Huot said. That meant Earth’s gravity would likelrapidly drag Starship back toward Earth, whether or not engines are relit. It’s not clear why SpaceX decided to forgo that test, but engineers noted a lot of data needs to be evaluated in the hours and days ahead. “The atmosphere is actually doing us a huge favor here by acting as a braking system for starship,” said Kate Tice, one of the hosts of SpaceX’s livestream. The Starship spacecraft is coated in about 18,000 lightweight, ceramic hexagon tiles designed to protect the vehicle from the scorching-hot temperatures as it plunges back into the Earth’s atmosphere. During the livestream, a vibrant halo of bright red plasma, created by extreme heat and pressure as Starship entered the atmosphere, could be seen glowing around the vehicle. Shortly after, the team lost communication with the spacecraft. NASA Artemis moon mission