SpaceX's giant Starship rocket survived reentry through Earth's atmosphere on Thursday and splashed down in the Indian Ocean as planned during its fourth test mission after launching from south Texas.
The two-stage spacecraft, consisting of the Starship cruise vessel mounted atop its towering Super Heavy rocket booster, rocket broke apart during its last attempt in March to survive a blazingly hot re-entry through Earth's atmosphere.
Starship Thursday morning blasted off from the company's Starbase launch site near Boca Chica Village on the Gulf Coast of Texas. It is the latest trial mission in the test-to-failure rocket development campaign of Elon Musk's company.
SpaceX's giant Starship rocket launched from south Texas on Thursday for its fourth test toward space to execute a tricky primary objective: survive a blazingly hot re-entry through Earth's atmosphere, the violent phase where the rocket broke apart during its last attempt.
The two-stage spacecraft, consisting of the Starship cruise vessel mounted atop its towering Super Heavy rocket booster, blasted off from the company's Starbase launch site near Boca Chica Village on the Gulf Coast of Texas. It is the latest trial mission in the test-to-failure rocket development campaign of Elon Musk's company.
Designed to be cheaper and more powerful than SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, Starship - standing nearly 400 feet (122 meters) tall - represents the future of the company's dominant satellite launch and astronaut business. It is due to be used by NASA in the next few years to land the first astronauts on the moon since 1972.
Each Starship rocket has made it farther in its testing objectives than previous tests before failing, either by blowing up or disintegrating in the atmosphere.
The rocket's first launch in April 2023 exploded minutes after liftoff some 25 miles (40 km) above ground. During the next attempt in November, Starship reached space for the first time but exploded soon after.
SpaceX was gearing up for the highly anticipated fourth flight of its Starship next-generation launch vehicle, targeted for liftoff on June 6 from the company's Starbase facility in Texas.
This launch follows the previous test flight in March which made significant strides towards SpaceX's goal of rapid reusability, albeit with some setbacks that have now been addressed.
