The fourth was the right one. The world’s largest rocket, Starship, successfully landed for the first time on Thursday, SpaceX said after a test flight that lasted about an hour. The three previous tests were ended with explosions. Ultimately, the goal is to make this rocket the first fully reusable.
“Ditching confirmed!” wrote the company of billionaire Elon Musk on the social network “Congratulations and a huge thank you to the extraordinary teams at SpaceX”wrote on X Gwynne Shotwell, number 2 at SpaceX. “Congratulations to SpaceX for this successful Starship test flight”also reacted Bill Nelson, the boss of NASA, who plans to use this vessel as a moon lander to transport these astronauts, particularly during the Artemis 3 mission, planned for 2026. “We are one step closer to returning humanity to the Moon.”
Takeoff from Texas
Takeoff for this test flight took place at 7:50 a.m. from SpaceX’s Starbase in Boca Chica, in the far south of Texas. One of the main objectives of the flight was to successfully re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere.
The rocket is made up of two stages: the Super Heavy propulsion stage and, above it, the Starship, which by extension gives its name to the entire rocket. This, the largest and most powerful in the world, measures in total 120 meters high.
A few minutes after takeoff, Super Heavy detached from the ship and began its return to Earth. For the first time, it then successfully landed in the Gulf of Mexico, SpaceX announced.
The Starship continued its journey until reaching space. After about an hour, it in turn re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere, at a speed of 25,000 km/h, before landing in the Indian Ocean.
This speed causes friction that can raise the temperature to around 1,400°C, according to SpaceX. “We can see parts of the vehicle flying away,” declared one of the SpaceX commentators, shortly before the landing.
“DearMoon” mission canceled
Before the Artemis 3 mission, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa was to board Starship for a trip around the Moon without landing, a mission announced with great fanfare in 2018 and called “DearMoon”.
But last week, Mr. Maezawa declared that this project was canceled: “There is no clear prospect of when we will be able to take off”he wrote.
Elon Musk’s ultimate goal is the establishment of an autonomous colony on Mars, in order to make humanity a multi-planetary species.
