SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft returned Saturday from its longest flight into orbit to the tower from which it was launched Friday.
The spacecraft descended and slid smoothly between the mechanical “wand arms” above Launch Pad 2 in the US state of Texas. It was the first key recovery of the rocket system’s central craft in the company’s decade-long effort to develop a fully reusable rocket.
“Can you believe it?” » shouted SpaceX commentator Dan Huot. “Look at her! Baby, she’s back!”
SpaceX’s spacecraft hits key milestone
It was the 15th test flight of the world’s largest and most powerful rocket system. The Starship spacecraft circled the Earth 14 times for more than 22 hours, during which it deployed 26 Starlink satellites.
The successful return marked a key milestone in the multibillion-dollar development of Starship, which billionaire Elon Musk sees as crucial to SpaceX’s satellite business and its ambitions to send humans to the Moon and eventually Mars.
NASA welcomed the news. The US space agency is paying billions of dollars so Starship can land Artemis astronauts on the Moon later this decade and help build a permanent lunar base.
“It was almost magical,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman wrote on X.
SpaceX still investigating booster malfunction
SpaceX also intended to capture the lower portion of the rocket, known as the Super Heavy booster, but recovery of the lower stage was aborted and the rocket exploded over the Gulf of Mexico shortly after launch Friday.
SpaceX’s Kate Tice said its engines stopped working too soon. The booster’s guidance system detected that it was not in the correct position and initiated the self-destruct protocol. Engineers are still investigating the cause.
SpaceX captured the Super Heavy Booster on three previous test flights. Developing a fully reusable rocket system is critical to SpaceX’s goal of reducing the cost of spaceflight.
Gn headline
