SpaceX Starship completes historic test flight with controlled landing

SpaceX Starship test flight (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

SpaceX's massive Starship rocket concluded its inaugural comprehensive test flight on Thursday, returning to Earth intact following a successful launch from Texas. This marks a significant milestone as previous test flights ended in explosions. Standing nearly 400 feet (121 meters) tall, the world's largest and most powerful rocket launched without any payload, soaring over the Gulf of Mexico towards the Indian Ocean.

Shortly after the morning launch, the first-stage booster detached from the spacecraft and successfully splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico as planned, completing its engine burn. An hour later, live footage showed parts of the spacecraft disintegrating during reentry due to the intense heat. Despite this, it remained sufficiently intact to continuously transmit data until it reached its designated splashdown location in the Indian Ocean.

"The main goal of this mission is to get much deeper into the atmosphere during reentry, ideally through max heating," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk stated on social media on Saturday.

Starship’s first launch in April 2023 exploded minutes after liftoff, about 25 miles (40 km) above ground. The second attempt in November saw Starship reaching space but exploding shortly after. The most recent flight in March saw the Starship travel much farther, though it broke apart in Earth's atmosphere while attempting to return from space.

This latest flight aimed to replicate the previous test but with the goal of reaching a greater distance. The rocket's first stage, called Super Heavy, ignited its 33 Raptor engines to lift off and separated from the Starship second stage, which then propelled further into space. Super Heavy was expected to re-ignite some engines and return to the Gulf of Mexico for a "soft splash-down" to simulate a landing.

The rocket was equipped with hundreds of small black tiles designed to protect against the extreme heat encountered during hypersonic speeds through Earth's atmosphere.

NASA is relying on SpaceX’s development of Starship for its mission to return astronauts to the moon by 2026, competing with China's plans to send astronauts to the moon by 2030. China has recently made several advancements in its lunar program, including a second landing on the moon's far side for a sample retrieval mission.

(With inputs from agencies)