While SpaceX managed to get its hulk of a Starship rocket off the ground on Thursday, the upper-stage spacecraft disintegrated soon after separating from the main-stage Super Heavy booster. The catastrophic failure occurred just two months after the spacecraft suffered a similar fate in another flight test. That accident was put down to fires from propellant leaks caused by unexpected harmonic vibrations, but it’s too early to say if the same factors contributed to this latest incident.
The failure to nail the second part of Thursday’s mission will have been a big disappointment for SpaceX engineers, but as the company said in a statement following the flight test, “Success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve Starship’s reliability.”
Earlier in the day, some 3,200 miles southeast of SpaceX’s Starbase launch site in Texas, another rocket, the Ariane 6, achieved a flawless mission on only its second flight, after lifting off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou in French Guiana.
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While the technology on Arianespace’s 6 rocket is less complex than that on the next-generation Starship rocket, the team behind the launch will nevertheless be delighted that the rocket’s first commercial mission went as smoothly as it did, successfully placing in orbit the CSO-3 Earth observation satellite for the French Defense Procurement Agency (DGA) and the French space agency (CNES).
A video (top) shows the Ariane 6, which is similar to SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket in terms of launch thrust, leaving the launchpad on Thursday. The footage also captures other crucial phases of the rocket’s flight.
The two-stage Ariane 6 first flew in July 2024. Standing at 164-feet (50 meters), the new rocket replaced the Ariane 5, which made its final flight in July 2023 following several decades of reliable service.
Commenting on Thursday’s mission, CNES CEO Lionel Suchet said: “I’m delighted at the successful launch of the French defense satellite CSO-3 for CNES and the DGA. This launch success — Ariane 6’s first commercial mission — is excellent news in so many ways and clearly demonstrates European and French excellence in space, to the benefit of our citizens.”