SpaceX has successfully landed its Starship rocket booster in Texas following a bold test flight, marking a significant step towards the company's goal of developing a fully reusable rocket system for lunar missions, reports Daily Mail.

The 400-foot reusable rocket blasted off at sunrise from a launch site near the Mexico border before landing on a pad equipped with mechanical arms, dubbed "chopsticks" by the company. The flight path took the rocket over the Gulf of Mexico, following the same route as four previous Starship tests that ended in destruction.

BREAKING: SpaceX Spacecraft successfully returns to ground after being caught by clamps that they are calling "chopsticks" https://t.co/PAiZ4D1jU3

Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/s6AZDcxRex

— Sky News (@SkyNews) October 13, 2024

 The achievement represents a major milestone for SpaceX, as it aims to create a rocket system capable of carrying crew and cargo to the moon. "Even in this day and age, what we just saw is magic," said SpaceX's Dan Huot from near the launch site after the booster touched down. "I am shaking right now." The company's founder, Elon Musk, expressed his excitement on social media platform X, stating, "The tower has caught the rocket!!"

SpaceX brought the first-stage booster back to land at the pad from which it had soared seven minutes earlier. The launch tower's massive metal arms successfully caught the descending 232-foot booster. The flight director made the decision to attempt the landing in real-time, with both the booster and launch tower required to be in good, stable condition. SpaceX had previously stated that if conditions were not ideal, the booster would end up in the Gulf of Mexico like its predecessors.

Kate Tice, speaking from SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, declared, "Folks, this is a day for the engineering history books."

The spacecraft atop the booster continued its journey around the world once separated, targeting a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The entire flight was expected to last just over an hour.

This latest test flight incorporated improvements based on lessons learned from previous attempts. The June flight fell short at the end after pieces came off, prompting SpaceX to upgrade the software and rework the heat shield, enhancing the thermal tiles.

SpaceX's achievement marks another milestone in the company's quest to make space travel more accessible and cost-effective through reusable rocket technology. As the space industry continues to evolve, such advancements may pave the way for more frequent and ambitious missions beyond Earth's orbit.

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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.

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SpaceX, the aerospace company helmed by Elon Musk, is preparing for the fourth launch of its massive Starship rocket as early as next week.

This highly anticipated test flight holds great significance in the pursuit of developing a reusable rocket system capable of making space exploration more accessible, cost-effective, and potentially even enabling human visits to distant celestial bodies.

"The fourth flight of Starship will aim to bring us closer to the rapidly reusable future on the horizon. We're continuing to rapidly develop Starship, putting flight hardware in a flight environment to learn as quickly as possible as we build a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond," SpaceX says.

Starship and Super Heavy loaded with more than 10 million pounds of propellant in a rehearsal ahead of Flight 4. Launch is targeted as early as June 5, pending regulatory approval pic.twitter.com/lss0brCZgN

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 29, 2024

According to SpaceX, the launch window for the Starship rocket, coupled with its Super Heavy booster, could open as early as Wednesday, June 5, contingent upon obtaining approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Despite the company's previous Starship test ending in a fiery spectacle, the FAA has determined that the incident posed no safety risks to the public, granting SpaceX the green light to proceed with another test launch before completing the investigation into the previous mishap.

Watch Starship's fourth flight test → https://t.co/bJFjLCiTbK https://t.co/SjpjscHoUB

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 6, 2024

While the FAA has yet to issue the launch license required for the fourth test, approvals for the preceding three launches were granted within a day or two of the designated launch window. SpaceX has indicated that the launch window will open as early as 7 a.m. Central Time (8 a.m. ET, 5 a.m. PT), though the company has urged the public to follow its social media channels for the most up-to-date information, as such schedules are subject to change.

"The mission will fly a similar trajectory as the previous flight and will shift focus from achieving orbit to demonstrating the ability to return and reuse Starship and Super Heavy, including opening and closing the payload door in space for the first time and executing its first reentry from space," SpaceX stated.

A live webcast of the launch will commence approximately 30 minutes before liftoff and can be viewed on SpaceX's website and its X account.

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