SpaceX’s giant new rocket blasted off from South Texas on a test flight on Saturday.
The 397-foot Starship rocket thundered into the sky and arced out over the Gulf of Mexico, separating the spaceship from its booster to send it into space.
Despite the goal for an altitude of 150 miles (240 kilometers), high enough to send the spacecraft around the globe before ditching into the Pacific near Hawaii in about 1 1/2 hours after liftoff, the Space X rocket flew for about 10 minutes after which the ground team said it had lost contact and ended its livestream.
Saturday’s launch comes seven months after the first try ended in an explosion.
The first flight in April lasted four minutes with the wreckage crashing into the gulf. Since then the company, owned by X CEO, has made dozens of improvements to the booster, the launch pad and its 33 engines. The mission plan is broadly the same as before: to send the top part of the two-stage vehicle – the Ship – nearly one full revolution of the Earth
Philips Babatunde