SpaceX's Starship Achieves Milestone Splashdown in Test Flight

 

SpaceX's Starship Achieves Milestone Splashdown in Test Flight

Boca Chica, TX — SpaceX's colossal Starship rocket marked a significant milestone with its first-ever splashdown during a test flight on Thursday. This achievement advances the prototype system that could one day send humans to Mars.

Dramatic footage captured by an onboard camera showed sparks and debris flying as the spacecraft descended over the Indian Ocean, northwest of Australia, successfully surviving atmospheric re-entry despite losing several tiles and suffering a damaged flap.

"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. "Congratulations SpaceX team on an epic achievement!!"

The world's most powerful rocket launched from SpaceX's Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, at 7:50 a.m. (1250 GMT), entered orbit, and traveled halfway around the globe in a journey lasting approximately one hour and five minutes.

Starship is central to Musk's vision of colonizing Mars and transforming humanity into an interplanetary species. NASA has also contracted a modified version of Starship for its Artemis program, aimed at returning astronauts to the Moon later this decade.

Previous attempts had ended in fiery destruction, part of SpaceX's rapid trial-and-error approach. "The payload for these flight tests is data," SpaceX reiterated on X, a sentiment echoed by the commentary team throughout the flight.

The last test in March saw the spaceship flying for 49 minutes before it was lost as it entered the atmosphere at nearly 17,000 mph. Since then, SpaceX has implemented several software and hardware upgrades.

On Thursday, the mission also marked the first soft splashdown of the Super Heavy booster in the Gulf of Mexico, met with massive applause from engineers at mission control in Hawthorne, California.

Cheers grew louder in the final minutes as ground teams celebrated the upper stage's fiery descent, captured by SpaceX's Starlink satellite network. Despite a camera lens crack from flying debris, the ship ultimately stuck the landing.

"Congratulations SpaceX on Starship's successful test flight this morning!" NASA chief Bill Nelson wrote on X. "We are another step closer to returning humanity to the Moon through #Artemis - then looking onward to Mars."

Twice as Powerful as Saturn V

Standing 397 feet (121 meters) tall with both stages combined, Starship is designed to be fully reusable and is 90 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty. Its Super Heavy booster generates 16.7 million pounds of thrust, about twice that of the Saturn V rockets used in the Apollo missions, with future versions expected to be even more powerful.

SpaceX's strategy of real-world testing over lab experiments has proven successful. Its Falcon 9 rockets have become NASA and commercial sector workhorses, the Dragon capsule transports astronauts and cargo to the ISS, and the Starlink satellite network now spans dozens of countries.

However, the clock is ticking for SpaceX to prepare for NASA's 2026 Moon mission using a modified Starship. This involves placing a primary Starship in orbit and refueling it with multiple "Starship tankers" - a complex feat yet to be accomplished.

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa recently announced the cancellation of his planned Moon trip with a crew of artists due to the uncertain timeline, reflecting growing impatience among SpaceX enthusiasts.

- Lavanya Yadav@Wondernext