Most people focused on the booster crash. But the detail that stopped me was the timing: SpaceX launched Starship V3 for the very first time just days after its IPO S-1 went public, making this the most financially charged rocket test in the company's history. Booster 19 lifted off on 33 Raptor 3 engines, completed stage separation, and then tumbled uncontrolled into the Gulf of Mexico after its boostback burn failed. That failure, right before a $1.75 trillion Nasdaq listing, is not a small headline.
What the upper stage did after separation is the part worth paying attention to. Ship 39 lost one Raptor vacuum engine during ascent, but stayed on a valid suborbital trajectory on the remaining five. It then deployed 22 Starlink satellite simulators, including two with cameras that streamed live footage of the heat shield from outside the vehicle. It completed a simulated Indian Ocean landing. For a first-ever flight of a completely redesigned rocket, that's a lot of boxes checked.
So here's the question nobody is fully answering yet: does losing a booster on your pre-IPO debut flight shake investor confidence, or does successfully deploying 22 Starlink simulators on Flight 1 of V3 actually strengthen SpaceX's commercial case?
Find out everything at pixelauratech.com
Top comments (0)