SpaceX Launches Third Starship Flight Test

SpaceX is targeting Thursday for the third flight of Starship. The license from the FAA was acquired. The flight will feature several upgrades to Booster and Ship, as well as a modification of the flight path to the Indian Ocean, instead of Hawaii. In space, SpaceX plans to demonstrate the payload dispenser door, and the capability to relight a Raptor in Space. Additionally, SpaceX wants to demonstrate the capability of in-space cryogenic propellant transfer.
The mission will attempt a soft splashdown of Booster 10 in the Gulf of Mexico, and a splashdown of Ship 28 in the Indian Ocean.
Window Opens: March 14th at 7:00AM CDT (12:00 UTC)
Window Closes: March 14th at 9:00AM CDT (14:00 UTC)
Mission: Starship's third fully integrated test flight
Vehicles: Booster 10 and Ship 28
Booster Recovery: Booster will attempt a soft splashdown ~20km offshore simulating a landing back on the chopsticks.
Ship Recovery: Ship will not be recovered but will attempt a controlled reentry and splashdown in the Indian Ocean.
Stats:
· SpaceX's 26th launch of the year and the 7th launch of the month
· SpaceX's 3rd space launch from Starbase
Forum link: forum.nasaspaceflight.com/ind...
SpaceX's launch page: www.spacex.com/launches/missi...
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[@JoseCarvalhojpgc]

Launch 8:43:58 Hot staging 8:46:55 Booster "re-entry" @50km altitude 8:50:15 Ship MECO 8:52:48 Payload door opening attempt 9:14:32 Start of plasma @ ship re-entry 9:30:28 What a flight!!

[@goldgamercommenting2990]

Also at 9:14:32 the door broke and couldn’t close it

[@zapfanzapfan]

Getting signal live from during the reentry was just amazing! Thank you NSF for all the hard work!

[@SebPlaySpaceflight]

One of the coolest launches ever! R.I.P. booster 10 and ship 28.

[@Booster-13ALIVE]

1:42 Stream Start (Live View and speech l) 7:10:49 1st Delay 7:43:32 2nd Delay 7:45:43 Tower Vent Start (and OLM vent) 7:53:42 Tower vent stop 8:01:14 Ship Prop. Loading 8:04:49 Booster Prop. Loading 8:40:11 Booster and Ship Prop load complete 8:43:42 FireX 8:43:50 T-10 Seconds 8:43:56 Deluge 8:43:58 Ignition and Liftoff! 8:45:06 MAX Q 8:45:52 On board views 8:46:50 Hot Staging 8:47:33 B10 Boostback view 8:47:56 Boostback shutdown 8:50:19 Grid Fin Action 8:51:08 B10 Failed Landing Burn (Not FTS hit ocean) 8:52:48 SECO, S28 in space 9:00:25 Payload Bay Door Open 9:14:30 Payload Bay Door closed (wobble) Fuel Transfer is done during sometime around here 9:30:19 Ship 28 Re Entry 9:33:54 Loss of Ship 28 (seen by data in bottom right) 9:36:28 Chopsticks start closing 9:50:17 Highway 4 Opens 9:58:10 Chopsticks lowering 10:18:03 Special Outro Congrats SpaceX

[@maxlin3442]

The booster FTS'd 400 m above ocean

[@testing1567]

9:14:29 "It's like, when will this thing fail?" Followed immediately by something structural failing on the cargo bay door.

[@julz_swag]

Hats off to everyone at Spacex who worked so hard on this.

[@Demi2210UA]

💯💯💯💯💯💯

[@user-un7xw8zz3x]

🔥🔥🔥

[@FiveThreeZero91]

Starship has gone further than ever before. What a day! On to the next pair! Such an incredible launch and the VIEWS! Can't wait for the next one. We have seen re-entry footage before but somehow this one from starship just felt and looked incredible, that plasma!!

[@DebraJean196]

First time we’ve had views of plasma from outside the ship I think lol

[@tinyboi_]

I have been watching every livestream since SN4 exploded. And I can genuinely say that this is the coolest thing I have ever seen. Great job guys!!! And a big thanks to Mary as always. We are all tank watchers for life.

[@robyn051]

I think that explosion might’ve been my first NSF livestream too

[@smavtmb2196]

WOW! That was so Incredible. It was insane seeing the footage of plasma forming on Ship 28 during re-entry. Can't wait to hear what SpaceX will learn from this flight test, and the changes that will be made for IFT-4

[@cogoid]

For any other rocket, this flight would have been a complete success. But of course SpaceX is trying to do a much harder thing. It will be very exciting to see what they will be able to accomplish in the next flights.

[@EMichaelBall]

My jaw was agape at the reentry. WOW!!

[@foggiertiger535]

guys, I respect lon, but can we please get a commentator who knows what they're talking about and is enthusiastic leading the most important stream of the year so far, please, for the sake of the community.

[@paveltolz6601]

"Hard Splash Down" Love it. Hope we can see the 1000 plus KM 'splash down' footage soon.

[@congduyao9722]

I dont think we have its footage since there was no WB-57 planes flying to film this

[@pornstarSR]

I have never, along with a ton of people NEVER seen that view of reentry. amazing. plus amazing progression in this test flight

[@GeorgeGraves]

There is a popular one of the shuttle coming in showing it from onboard, inside. Most space junkies have seen it.

[@donb1397]

Correct, we've seen video of plasma from inside many capsules and the shuttle. This might be the first time we've seen the plasma from the exterior.@@GeorgeGraves

[@donb1397]

yes, the plasma... omg...

[@robyn051]

@@donb1397it’s definitely the first time an external view of reentry has ever been broadcast live in real-time in any quality let alone 1080 (maybe 4k?) at least

[@fridaycaliforniaa236]

Search for the Orion Reentry, it's quite good too. And this one from Varda Space.

[@MickRonald]

A massive thank you to the entire NASASpaceflight team for all your hard work and dedication. This was truly a fantastic stream. Also want to thank all the very generous gifters for their super chats, memberships, tips. Amazing support.

[@jackmcallister1445]

Launch starts at 8:43:58 😉

[@boockar]

🙏

[@centerfield6339]

Thank God for you, son.

[@gh8447]

@@centerfield6339Really? All you gotta do is scrub through the progress bar 'till you find something interesting happening. Takes ~5 to 10 seconds. No deity required.

[@solidtank7957]

​@@gh8447 ❤

[@centerfield6339]

@@gh8447 certainly that would be a better use of that time than reading your comment. No idea what you're trying to say that's worth taking the time to say it.

[@CoffeeMonster12]

SpaceX mentioned on their stream that future engine upgrades will give the booster 3 times the thrust of the Saturn V, aka over 100 meganewtons of thrust

[@kelseyriano908]

a ver great ending for a disappointing birthday for me, thank you nasaspaceflight for this very lovely cover

[@christhegardener1772]

Just got in from work, watching the replay, my heart is thumping with excitement and joy! What a launch, those beautiful diamonds, the plasma, the re-entry view...phoaw! And as I type this replay is over the 2 million views mark - great work all day NSF, great job!

[@AJCCycling]

I want one of those cameras! Pretty much indestructible it seems... Unreal sights, so impressive.

[@clems6989]

Everything that failed on IFT2 Worked on IFT3 ! That is 100% success!

[@The1QwertySky]

completely agreed

[@gslTM]

And that's how you do rapid iteration!

[@TheBestOfSweden]

Insane launch! At 8:52:51 you can see S28’s shadow in the mist

[@MrWood-wo3dj]

Congratulations on the launch from Year 9 Science class in the UK.

[@jasperfk]

My GCSE physics teacher instilled a love of science in me in year 9! Thanks for doing what you do Mr Wood!

[@peppi0304]

9:30:31 Reentry visible heating: Looks insane

[@yakvashlyandets]

пока чувака в свитере не показали, я подумал, что это женщина. Молодец Илон! Поздравляю!

[@hyperion_mike]

What an amazing day! Witnessing history in the making! Thanks for the comprehensive and entertaining coverage NSF!

[@kyleosho]

The re-entry was awesome looking!

[@loadmastergod1961]

Dangit. I went back to sleep when it said scrub this morning. Way to go space x and nsf teams. So happy with this broadcast team!

[@billd67]

This is so amazing with the empty launch pad, I so want them to stack another Starship and Super Heavy and go again and see how fast they can launch a second pairing and go on and come up with a list more items to accomplish! This a thing where you will remember where you were when it happened!

[@TheDaexiled1]

The Starlink system is the reason why the feed lasted as long as it did, to see the re-entry plasma like that is a first for all of us

[@jackcharles8243]

Starship can in theory now launch Starlink satellites. why not get product to orbit while developing Starship further

[@cogoid]

Sort of. They still need to be able to relight the engines.

[@gslTM]

Absolutely massive congratulations to the SpaceX team on getting this thing up 150km. This is rapid iteration at its finest, and I predict that whatever didn't work this time, will work the next.

[@shakursmith4862]

Best outro ever in my opinion

[@James_Ford4815]

Commentary was great as usual but video and audio for blastoff was very meh. As soon as steam/exhaust covers the screen you should switch to the camera that captures both Starship and booster. You can always reshow the close up shots of the engines and diamonds during takeoff later in the broadcast but for liftoff the further away shots would be so much better.

[@cblair1353]

Yeah the coverage of the actual launch was sub-par to say the least. No audio of the rocket after like 20 seconds, weird cuts between the SpaceX feed and their own cameras, just to show a bad shot of the exhaust plume. Not at all what I've come to expect given the quality of their coverage of other launches and kinda disappointing that they failed to capture this one live. I'm not sure how many different/new people they have helping, but they need to rehearse their process a bit more.

[@James_Ford4815]

@@cblair1353 yea kind of weird it seems most of the live streamers all had issues with the takeoff audio today

[@victorcotu]

And let's not talk about the clueless "journalist" (I guess). Someone may want to make the coverage more professional, but journalists are only good at deceiving, lying and being clueless.

[@Al8101]

3rd time watching this replay. Thank you, NSF and your entire crew! Great work!

[@Trinitycore0720]

Well you know what they say Third time’s the charm

[@yoshtg]

9:28:26 thats the southern part of madagascar, you can see "lake anony" clearly

[@michalmarkowiak]

Yes. I've just made the same comment.

[@nathanaellew4578]

baaah the audio is clipping so bad during launch. The official feed had their launchpad audio on point, but they had all the cheering layered underneath it. Which was also cool to hear. The hubris! Thanks for covering the launch!

[@HarshilFTW]

Great Coverage! That outro(esspecially the transition) was epicc!!!!!!!

[@jamesf333]

Amazing! 2 mins of no sound at liftoff 😢

[@orionSpacecraft]

Shame that the audio cut out during the launch

[@bohemethmonkey]

Thankfully I had two streams going from SpaceX

[@ChatGPT1111]

Other YT channels worked fine.

[@madtech5153]

always do several streams including SpaceX. other channel will obviously prioritize their own cameras over spaceX's one since you can just view SpaceX cameras in their SpaceX channel at X.

[@orionSpacecraft]

@@madtech5153 yeah I had the space X stream on X on my phone and another stream on my tv

[@Space_pawzz5512]

Man im sad i couldn't see it live! I was at school when it launched but at least i can still watch it This was awesome

[@davidminnesota4050]

Lots of hype for a test that did a better failure of the booster. This flight is another step forward for the system but the leap will be how a successful launch is performed and utilized.

[@lukeyguy965]

SpaceX streaming only on X giving you amazing people more views congratulations on them big numbers.

[@cogoid]

The booster looks pretty good. With a few tweaks to light the engines on time it will not be surprising to see controlled splashdowns later this year, and SpaceX catching them next year. We will have to wait until the next time to really see how the ship does with the reentry, but the video through the Starlink connection is already very impressive.

[@jeremyz4623]

I can't believe the progress! Wow.

[@janetprice85]

Amazing to watch! The booster was almost spot on it's target in the Gulf and the main shuttle went down over the Indian Ocean as planned. Even with a glitch at the end it was a great success and very cool pics considering the vast distance traveled over oceans.

[@beesod6412]

I just wish you folks wouldn't talk over one another.. (Alex) and when spaceX is telling us whats going on, stop talking and let us listen. they have more information than you folks. other than that it was a great show. thank you NSF!

[@Kal-el64]

What an amazing launch 39 for 39 engines again haven't seen any footage from the Indian Ocean or abouts even if they have some footage from the Gulf of Mexico that would be nice too see that 200 plus foot come back and slam into the Gulf

[@DebraJean196]

10/28 o7 (correct salute -seen from behind!). Thanks for all the hard work to bring an incredible broadcast start to finish!!!! Dozed off occasionally so I had to join #ReplayCrew to watch parts I missed. I agree with the guys, views from reentry were totally amazing.

[@user-fo8nz6ip8p]

Did anyone else see the X in the flame. Wild!

[@JamesLydon1]

looks like starship was still rotating on its y axis during re entry, as the flaps started to catch air it was coming in almost flap dead on into wind lol any further and it would have been coming in steel side. amazing the vehicle was able to hold on that long through the oscillation that followed trying to get back from coming in at that angle.

[@Corrijcr]

Awesome job NSF!!! Thanks for the covering and all the job behind the scenes!! BUT I showed the stream to my wife, who doesn´t care about rockets, and she said: "who is that guy in the middle that talks like he doesn't know anything about the rocket?" Please NSF, you have a lot of wonderful hosts that are also experts in Starship... its a little bit embarrassing hearing a host that confuses flaps with grid fins...

[@corrinastanley125]

Awesome stream thanks NSF team, Mods and guests.

[@m_chupon5131]

The reentry video was epic, and I love how we got at least 1 or 2 frames of the actual ocean as the booster was hitting at 1km/s. If nothing else, this could be educational video about cloud layers, I've never seen the "sphere" part of the atmosphere layers as clearly as this launch footage. Different cloud layers like shells around the Earth, so cool. It's like Elon said, "You know it's real because it looks so fake"

[@All_Original]

Absolutely INCREDIBLE launch!

[@NeoNikosis]

Starship will make life multiplanetary. Great job SpaceX!

[@randyschreiner7807]

No it won’t. They pushed the needle today but big questions on whether they can pull off reusability. Loss of vehicle 3x now.

[@NeoNikosis]

@@randyschreiner7807 ... as thay planned.

[@peterthomson7099]

@@randyschreiner7807 It's a prototype. As was stated in the stream, failure during development is a lot more informative than success.

[@randyschreiner7807]

@@NeoNikosis I very much doubt that. They fell short of their target objectives. I’ll give them a partial success and at least the booster didn’t RUD. They lost control of both vehicles.

[@randyschreiner7807]

@@peterthomson7099 Of course I knew that. But how many more times can they get partial successes?

[@JasonLHoughton]

Thank guys for all your coverage! 😊

[@Stas_Rzhevskiy]

Ого! Вот это было круто.

[@Roach_Dogg_JR]

Im glad it finally reached space, but im sad that they changed the flight plan to no longer land near Hawaii. I mightve had a chance of seeing it reentering...

[@Alpha-Trion7]

Escaping Earth before the robots take us over? Let me into the treehouse!! :P

[@Lexington-Concord1775]

Great streaming ! Thank you NSF.

[@danielprieto3563]

Love that curve of the Earth

[@dionysschub5350]

Cant wait to see the next launch

[@SansSouciSack]

These three are now back in their bedrooms reading star trek comic books, waiting to fall asleep and dream of their day and future dreams.

[@paulkirwan3431]

No, the adult isn't. He should have facilitated Alex a bit better. Stopped him talking over everyone all the time. He's really annoying sometimes. Trevor should have been hosting.

[@Mirakovska]

Vision will and persistence 😮

[@Blazestation]

Thank you so much for this NSF

[@SN15isthebeststarship]

Great Coverage as always. Buying the metal print soon

[@corycrandell2682]

How incredibly awesome. I suspect they may have had a problem with the ships orientation, like it's gyro wasn't working. It seemed to struggle to stabilize its approach.

[@Rawkus919]

Spinning is a cool trick

[@user-un7xw8zz3x]

Congratulations!❤️

[@jannis11]

NoIcE

[@JimmyhereFan101]

Rip starship

[@Lyerbait13]

Incredible!

[@qiangfu7271]

We made it!

[@rickythomas9698]

Huge leap for spacex.

[@adamdevinci]

Crazy!

[@rhythmtibo]

I think you guys need an audio engeneer… Great work tho! 🎉

[@akughachophi1592]

it's great&next will even be better....

[@michalmarkowiak]

9:28:33 That's south Madagaskar. Ship was passing south of it.

[@timw6596]

I'm thinking that the flaps do not work above or during the entry through the atmosphere, the shuttles flight surfaces were not active till the reentry was done and the air was thick enough to act on the flight surfaces. The grid fins on the F9's are useless till it gets below the atmosphere burn up area ! IMHO !

[@jamesbracken6751]

Would be nice without all the ads and text taking up the entire screen you left about 15 percent of the screen to actually see the rocket.

[@MrSpacePhoneRepair14]

Best launch out of all the other ones

[@solidtank7957]

I'll remember this

[@Activ3x11]

Crazy!!! But why cut-off of stage sep?

[@user-rl1hv3rd9g]

Congratulations SpaceX 👏👏👏👏👍👍👍

[@m_chupon5131]

BTW tho, you really missed out not listening to the "elevator music" live, that smooth jazz was perfect.

[@nickmail7604]

We truly are on the verge of becoming a multi planet species

[@asherlevi33]

Congrats NSF for the amazing coverage!!❤️❤️❤️

[@fastmclaren71]

Cutting away at the wrong moments again.

[@rickgrear8270]

Thanks!

[@Demi2210UA]

DSS activation - 8:43:40 Water Deluge Deflector - 8:43:55 Ignition! - 8:43:57 LIFTOFF!!! - 8:44:02 Roll program & beautiful 33 Raptors - 8:44:25 MaxQ - 8:44:53 Hot-Staging Sequence - 8:46:42 Boostback burn startup - 8:46:58 Boostback burn shutdown - 8:48:02 Booster controlled reentry - 8:50:19 Booster loosing control - 8:51:00 Landing burn start - 8:51:09 Hard splashdown - 8:51:14 RVac shutdown - 8:52:35 Ship SECO & successful transatmospheric orbit!!! - 8:52:50

[@darshanparekh9787]

Amazing!!

[@mitsuturbo]

Pretty cool to see Lagos Lagoon at the 9:28:23 mark.

[@yoshtg]

i dont know what lagos lagoon you are talking about, thats the southern part of madacascar you can see at that time-stamp

[@xxxsnoopdawgxxx1220]

You know this community just makes me so happy I was gifted yet another monthly membership by someone to whom I want to say thank you! I purchased a membership during Endeavours lift into its new exhibit after my gifted membership expired and I am beyond words that someone gave me another one. Thank you NSF community and to the hosts for your dedication.

[@GalderIncarnate]

Lucky bird LOL 8:43:59

[@Wirmish]

Booster re-entry started going bad exactly at the level of the first cloud layer. ☁☁🚀☁☁ Strong crosswinds?

[@rickjason215]

This is only a test, but it looked nominal.

[@carcinogen60yearsago]

9:27:10 Reentry starts

[@laowangstory]

is great job SpaceX