SpaceX has conducted the third orbital test of its Super Heavy launch vehicle and Starship spacecraft. This time there were no explosions at the start. The launch took place at about 15:26 Kyiv time. [UPDATE] Contact with Starship was lost during landing, most likely the ship crashed over the Indian Ocean.

SpaceX has set a number of ambitious goals for the third test. Successful ignition of all engines of both stages during ascent; opening and closing of the Starship payload bay doors; demonstration of fuel transfer on the accelerator; first re-launch of the Raptor engine; controlled return of Super Heavy and Starship.

SpaceX also warned in advance about a new flight path that involves the Starship crashing in the Indian Ocean.

The day before, SpaceX also published a video of preparations for the third orbital test of SpaceX Super Heavy and Starship.

Last November, the second orbital test of SpaceX’s Super Heavy launch vehicle and Starship spacecraft again ended in an explosion.

Then all the first stage engines worked without failures, and the Super Heavy separated from Starship and began its descent to land. However, during the re-ignition, not all of the Super Heavy’s engines started working, so the automation shut down the engines and blew up the launch vehicle at 200 seconds of flight.

Instead, all Starship engines worked normally until they ran out of fuel. But after that, the ship also exploded – it happened at 488 seconds of flight.

SpaceX performed the first test launch of the Starship in April last year. Then it ended in an explosion at the 4 minute mark of the flight.