Flight 2: Hot-staging works; both stages lost after major firsts
November 18, 2023 delivered a full-duration Super Heavy ascent burn, the first successful hot-stage separation at this scale, and Starship’s first trip to space — before both stages were lost.
What happened
Flight 2 left Starbase at 7:02 a.m. CT on November 18, 2023 with a longer checklist than Flight 1: full-duration booster ascent, hot-staging, boostback, and a ship burn toward space.
All 33 booster Raptors completed ascent for the first time. Hot-staging worked. Ship 25 reached roughly 150 km and nearly finished its burn before an energetic end over the Gulf corridor.
Hot-staging and booster
After ascent, Super Heavy powered down to three engines while Ship lit six — the first successful hot-stage separation on a vehicle of this class.
The booster flipped and started boostback, then experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly about three and a half minutes into flight near 90 km altitude.
Ship to space
Ship 25’s six Raptors lit cleanly and pushed the vehicle into space at roughly 24,000 km/h — Starship’s first time above the Kármán line on an integrated flight.
The upper stage did not complete the full planned profile, but the combination of hot-staging and space access set the template for Flight 3.