- The largest rocket system ever built in space history has successfully completed a fifth test flight.
- The unmanned “Starship” took off from the spaceport of tech billionaire Elon Musk’s private space company SpaceX in the US state of Texas.
- For the first time in this test, an attempt was made to land the lower rocket stage directly on the launch tower – which was successful.
Around an hour after take-off, “Starship” landed in a controlled manner in the Indian Ocean as planned, and in between it flew to space altitude. It consists of the approximately 70-meter-long “Super Heavy” booster and the approximately 50-meter-long upper stage and is intended to enable manned missions to the Moon and Mars. The system is designed so that the spacecraft and rocket can be reused after returning to Earth.
During the latest test in Texas, for the first time in space history, a rocket part was able to be loaded again on the launch tower (see video clip above).
Previous tests varied in success
During a first test in April 2023, the entire rocket system exploded after just a few minutes. During a second test in November 2023, the two rocket stages separated and the upper one continued to fly, but shortly afterwards both exploded separately.
During a third test in March, the “Starship” reached space for the first time, but was also unable to complete the flight as hoped. During a fourth test flight in June, the “Starship” made a controlled landing for the first time, but it didn’t go quite as hoped. SpaceX always emphasizes that the goal of the tests is to collect data. The fifth test flight has now been successfully completed.
Image of the launch of the “Starship” rocket in Texas, USA.
Keystone/AP Photo/Eric Gay
Both major goals of the fifth test flight have been achieved, writes Musk on the online platform X, which he also owns. “Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting fifth test flight of the Starship,” says SpaceX’s official X profile.
That’s how important Elon Musk is to SpaceX
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Michael Gschweitl, space researcher at ETH Zurich, says about the role of SpaceX main owner Elon Musk in the Starship project: “He pushed the project forward through his personality – even if in the current phase the team that is actually implementing the project is of course doing a lot is more important. What Musk and SpaceX have achieved: They have shaken up the space industry quite a bit. So he brought up the topic of reusability of rockets – it was virtually buried many years ago for technical reasons and because there was no economic need for it – again. Simply by doing it. This meant that the competition also had to follow suit.”
The “Starship” system, which is around 120 meters long, will be able to transport well over 100 tons of cargo in the future. NASA wants to take astronauts to the moon with the “Starship”. SpaceX hopes to one day take the system to Mars.
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