SpaceX launches Starship Flight 5, Super Heavy booster: Watch the liftoff

SpaceX launched its Starship and Super Heavy booster from Texas on Sunday at 7:25 a.m. CST Sunday.

This was the fifth attempt to launch the massive rocket, but first to attempt a recovery capture of the booster back at the launch site by using the launch tower’s paid of “chopsticks” to catch it during a powered descent.

The Federal Aviation Administration on Saturday announced it had given the OK for Starship to launch after a long delay since the last Starship test mission on June 6, which featured the booster making a landing in the water that was controlled enough for the company to try and go for it back at the launch pad.

“Flight 4 was a tremendous success. A fully successful ascent was followed by the first ever booster soft-landing in the Gulf of Mexico and Starship making it through a brilliant reentry, before its own landing burn and splashdown in the Indian Ocean,” the company stated.

The Starship separated from the booster after launch and head for a splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

“Extensive upgrades ahead of this flight test have been made to hardware and software across Super Heavy, Starship, and the launch and catch tower infrastructure at Starbase,” SpaceX stated. “SpaceX engineers have spent years preparing and months testing for the booster catch attempt, with technicians pouring tens of thousands of hours into building the infrastructure to maximize our chances for success.”

The attempt was set to only happen if all the boxes are ticked after launch.

“We accept no compromises when it comes to ensuring the safety of the public and our team, and the return will only be attempted if conditions are right,” SpaceX had stated.

That includes thousands of safety items to be determined after launch at both the pad and on the launch vehicle, including a manual command from the flight directory to signal go for landing.

“If this command is not sent prior to the completion of the boostback burn, or if automated health checks show unacceptable conditions with Super Heavy or the tower, the booster will default to a trajectory that takes it to a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico,” SpaceX stated.

The booster return, just like it does from Falcon 9 booster returns on the Space Coast, will generate a sonic boom, but it will be more intense because the rocket is bigger.

“The returning booster will slow down from supersonic speeds, resulting in audible sonic booms in the area around the landing zone,” SpaceX stated. “Generally, the only impact to those in the surrounding area of a sonic boom is the brief thunder-like noise with variables like weather and distance from the return site determining the magnitude experienced by observers.”

For the Starship first stage, teams worked to improve its heat shield so it can survive reentry better than it fared on the fourth test launch.

It features newer-generation tiles, a backup ablative layer and other protections between the spacecraft’s flap structures.

“With each flight building on the learnings from the last, testing improvements in hardware and operations across every facet of Starship, we’re on the verge of demonstrating techniques fundamental to Starship’s fully and rapidly reusable design,” SpaceX stated. “By continuing to push our hardware in a flight environment, and doing so as safely and frequently as possible, we’ll rapidly bring Starship online and revolutionize humanity’s ability to access space.”

The massive rocket became the most powerful to ever achieve orbit during a March launch with its 33 Raptor engines generating more than 16 million pounds of thrust on liftoff. This will be its third potential trip into space.

The rocket is 396 feet tall and has attempted all of its launches from SpaceX’s test facility at Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas.

While test flights continue in Texas, SpaceX plans to potentially build Starship launch sites at both Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of the Air Force are both heading up environmental impact studies to gauge the effect of launching what is the most powerful rocket to ever make it to orbit.