Boca Chica, United States SpaceX’s ambitious Starship rocket marked a significant achievement with its first-ever splashdown during a test flight on Thursday, signaling a major milestone for the prototype system envisioned to one day transport humans to Mars.
Debris was seen flying off the ship as it descended over the Indian Ocean, northwest of Australia, according to dramatic footage from an onboard camera. Despite the fiery fragments, some damage to the spacecraft’s tiles, and a flap, it withstood atmospheric reentry and achieved a soft landing in the ocean.
“Despite the loss of many tiles and a damaged flap, Starship made it all the way to a soft landing in the ocean!” tweeted SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. “Today was a great day for humanity’s future as a spacefaring civilization!”
The powerful rocket, the most formidable ever constructed, launched from SpaceX’s Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, at 7:50 a.m. (1250 GMT). It soared to space and traversed halfway around the globe, with the journey lasting about an hour and six minutes.
With a fully reusable design, Starship is crucial for Musk’s grand vision of colonizing Mars and transforming humanity into a multiplanetary species.
NASA has also contracted a modified version of Starship for the Artemis program, intending to use it as the final vehicle to transport astronauts to the Moon’s surface later this decade.
A Trial-and-Error Approach
This successful splashdown follows three previous test flights that ended in the ship’s destruction. SpaceX maintains that these tests are part of a rapid trial-and-error approach crucial for development.
“The payload for these flight tests is data,” SpaceX emphasized on Twitter, a sentiment echoed throughout the flight by the commentary team.
The next goal is to develop a “fully and immediately reusable orbital heat shield,” Musk stated, promising further tests to enhance Starship’s resilience during atmospheric reentry at speeds around 27,000 kilometers per hour (nearly 17,000 mph).
Seven-and-a-half minutes post-liftoff, the first stage booster, Super Heavy, achieved an upright splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, earning massive applause from mission control engineers in Hawthorne, California.
Excitement peaked during the flight’s final moments, as ground teams celebrated while the upper stage glowed red-hot, creating a plasma field from the atmospheric friction.
Space enthusiasts worldwide watched in awe, thanks to a live broadcast supported by SpaceX’s extensive Starlink internet satellite network. Despite a crack in the camera lens from debris, Starship successfully stuck the landing.
“Congratulations, SpaceX, on Starship’s successful test flight this morning!” NASA chief Bill Nelson tweeted. “We are another step closer to returning humanity to the Moon through #Artemis, then looking onward to Mars.”
Twice as powerful as the Apollo Rockets
Standing 397 feet (121 meters) tall, Starship, with both stages combined, is 90 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty. Its Super Heavy booster generates 16.7 million pounds (74.3 meganewtons) of thrust, making it twice as powerful as the Saturn V rockets from the Apollo missions, with future versions expected to be even more powerful.
SpaceX’s strategy of real-world testing over lab-based simulations has previously proven successful. Its Falcon 9 rockets are now essential for NASA and the commercial sector; the Dragon capsule delivers astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station; and the Starlink satellite network provides internet access to numerous countries.
However, SpaceX faces a time crunch to prepare for NASA’s planned lunar mission in 2026. This involves launching a primary starship into orbit and using multiple “starship tankers” to refuel it with supercooled fuel, an engineering challenge yet to be accomplished.
Meanwhile, China plans to launch its own crewed lunar mission by 2030 and has demonstrated a strong track record of adhering to its timelines.
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