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Like much of the world, NASA closely watched the second test flight of SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket, and now we can see what the agency saw.
That flight took off on Nov. 18, 2023, sending the two-stage Starship aloft from Starbase, SpaceX’s site on the Texas Gulf Coast. It ended eight minutes later, when Starship’s 165-foot-tall (50-meter) upper stage exploded high in the sky.
But the giant vehicle achieved some important milestones that day, noted SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk. For example, the 33 Raptor engines of its first stage booster, known as Super Heavy, executed their operation in 2.5 minutes practically perfectly. The two stages of Starship also separated on time, something that did not happen on the first flight, which launched on April 20 of last year.
Related: See stunning photos and videos of Starship’s second launch
You can get new views of the flight of the 400-foot-tall (122 m) Starship in NASA images, which the agency recently released through your FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) library.
Some of the video comes from onboard cameras. WB-57 aircraft, long-range aircraft that are capable of flying at altitudes of 60,000 feet (18,300 m) or more. Unfortunately, the footage doesn’t show the stage separation or provide a good look at Starship’s explosive ending.
NASA’s interest in the test flight should come as no surprise. The agency has invested heavily in Starship, selecting it as the first crewed lunar lander for its Artemis lunar exploration program. If all goes as planned, Starship will transport astronauts to and from the lunar surface for the first time in 2026, on the Artemis 3 mission.
We’ll soon see a third Starship flight test, if all goes according to plan. SpaceX representatives have said they will be ready to launch the giant rocket again this month, provided they obtain a license from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in time.
However, it is unclear if that will happen; The FAA is still overseeing an investigation into what happened on the second flight, which ended with the detonation of both the first and second stages.