The SpaceX Starship will launch on June 6 for its fourth test flight from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas.
Boca Chica, United States:
SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket made its first-ever landing during a test flight on Thursday, a major milestone for the prototype system that could one day send humans to Mars.
Bits of fiery debris flew from the spacecraft as it settled over the Indian Ocean northwest of Australia, dramatic video from an onboard camera showed, but it ultimately held together and survived the re-entry.
“Despite the loss of many tiles and a damaged flap, Starship has achieved a soft landing in the ocean!” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote about X.
“Today was a great day for humanity’s future as a space-faring civilization!” he added.
The most powerful rocket ever built took off from the company’s starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, at 7:50 a.m. (1250 GMT) before blasting off into space and flying halfway around the world, for a journey that took about an hour and six minutes. .
With its fully reusable design, Starship is essential to fulfilling Musk’s ambitious vision to colonize the Red Planet and make humanity a multiplanetary species.
Super Heavy crashed in the Gulf of Mexico pic.twitter.com/hIY3Gkq57k
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 6, 2024
NASA has now contracted a modified version of Starship, which will serve as the final vehicle to carry astronauts to the moon’s surface later this decade under the Artemis program.
– Trial-and-error approach –
Three previous test flights had ended in Starship’s destruction, which is all part of what the company says is an acceptable cost in its rapid, trial-and-error approach to development.
“The payload for these flight tests is data,” SpaceX said on X, a mantra the commentary team repeated throughout the flight.
The next challenge is to develop a “completely and immediately reusable orbital heat shield,” Musk said, promising further tests to learn how the Starship can better withstand entering the atmosphere at a speed of about 17,000 miles per hour ( almost 17,000 mph).
About seven and a half minutes after takeoff, the first stage booster, dubbed Super Heavy, managed to crash upright into the Gulf of Mexico to loud applause from mission control engineers in Hawthorne, California.
The cheering grew even louder in the final minutes of the flight. Ground teams cheered and shouted as the upper stage glowed fiery red, the result of a plasma field generated by the friction of the vehicle as it shot through the atmosphere.
Space fans around the world watched in awe, thanks to a live broadcast made possible by SpaceX’s massive constellation of Starlink internet satellites.
A chunk of flying debris even tore the camera lens, but ultimately Starship stalled on landing.
“Congratulations SpaceX on the successful test flight of Starship this morning!” NASA chief Bill Nelson wrote of
– Twice as powerful as Apollo rocket –
The spaceship is 400 feet tall with both stages combined – 90 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty.
The Super Heavy booster produces 16.7 million pounds (74.3 Meganewtons) of thrust, about twice as powerful as the Saturn V rockets used during the Apollo missions, and later versions should be even more powerful.
SpaceX’s strategy of conducting tests in the real world rather than in labs has paid off in the past.
The Falcon 9 rockets have become workhorses for NASA and the commercial sector, the Dragon capsule sends astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station, and the Starlink Internet satellite constellation now covers dozens of countries.
But the clock is ticking and SpaceX is ready for NASA’s planned return of astronauts to the moon in 2026.
To do this, SpaceX will first have to launch a primary spacecraft into orbit and then use multiple “Starship tankers” to fill it with supercooled fuel for the onward journey – a complex technical feat never before achieved .
China is planning its own manned moon mission in 2030, and has recently had a better track record than the United States in meeting its timelines.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)