The Starship spacecraft, intended for trips to the Moon and Mars, successfully landed in the Indian Ocean for the first time on Thursday, SpaceX said after a test flight of about an hour, which represents a milestone crucial for the company after three previous tests ended in explosions.
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During the live broadcast of the flight, however, the ship could be seen losing pieces, shortly before it ended its course as planned in the sea.
Elon Musk, the boss of SpaceX, congratulated the company’s teams for “this epic feat”.
He acknowledged in But “despite” this, “Starship managed to land smoothly in the ocean!” he rejoiced.
Takeoff for this fourth test flight took place at 7:50 a.m. from SpaceX’s Starbase space base in Boca Chica, in the far south of Texas.
One of the main objectives of the flight was to achieve a more controlled return of the vessel to the Earth’s atmosphere.
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Starship must in particular eventually be used to transport NASA astronauts to the Moon, for the first time since 1972. The American space agency is therefore closely following its development.
“Congratulations to SpaceX for this successful Starship test flight,” Bill Nelson, the head of NASA, responded immediately on Thursday. “We are one step closer to returning humanity to the Moon.”
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“Tough guy!”
The rocket is made up of two stages: the Super Heavy propulsion stage and, above it, the Starship, which by extension gives its name to the entire rocket. This, the largest and most powerful in the world, measures a total of 120 meters high.
A few minutes after takeoff, Super Heavy detached from the ship and began its return to Earth. For the first time, it then successfully landed in the Gulf of Mexico, SpaceX announced.
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The ship continued its journey until reaching space. After about an hour, it in turn re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere, at around 25,000 km/h. This speed causes friction that can raise the temperature to around 1,400°C, according to SpaceX.
Images broadcast live by cameras attached to the ship showed a layer of plasma formed around it.
“We can see parts of the vehicle flying away,” said one of the SpaceX commentators during the live video, shortly before the landing.
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“It’s a badass!” SpaceX number 2 Gwynne Shotwell wrote about the ship. “See you soon for the next flight!”
SpaceX does not plan to recover or reuse the copies of the ship and Super Heavy used during this test.
Future moonlander
The development of Starship is being carried out vigorously by SpaceX by quickly launching prototypes without cargo, in order to correct the problems encountered in flight as soon as possible.
The first test flight was carried out in April 2023.
During its last flight less than three months ago, the spacecraft had already gone well beyond the boundary of space, but its signal was lost 49 minutes after takeoff, as it returned to Earth, indicating that it had disintegrated.
The cause was identified as loss of control of its orientation in flight due to clogged valves, SpaceX explained. Several vehicle “improvements” have been added since then.
In addition to its disproportionate size, the great innovation of this rocket is that it must ultimately be entirely reusable.
NASA is counting on Starship in particular for its Artemis III mission, planned for 2026: a modified version of the vehicle must then serve as a moon lander for its astronauts.
Elon Musk wishes to make it the main instrument to achieve his ultimate goal: the establishment of an autonomous colony on Mars, in order to make humanity a multiplanetary species.
In the meantime, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa was to board a trip around the Moon (without landing) a mission announced with great fanfare in 2018 and called “DearMoon”.
But last week, Mr. Maezawa said that project was canceled: “There is no clear outlook for when we will be able to take off,” he wrote.
