SpaceX Starship, the world’s largest and most powerful rocket, completed its most successful test flight on Thursday, returning to Earth without exploding.
Thursday’s test flight was Starship’s fourth and marked a significant step toward achieving SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s ultimate goal of building a reusable rocket that could one day take people to Mars.
The previous three test flights – one in March and two last year – saw the rocket explode, although the most recent flight in March narrowly avoided an explosion. The other two exploded shortly after takeoff.
Musk said before the latest test flight that his “primary goal is to undergo maximum reentry heat.”
On Thursday, live footage from Starship’s flight showed some parts of the rocket breaking apart as it reached extremely high temperatures upon re-entry to Earth. Still, the spacecraft managed to splash down in the Indian Ocean in a controlled manner and remained sufficiently intact to be able to transmit data before landing.
Before its descent, the probe reached an altitude of almost 210 kilometers, traveling at more than 25,000 kilometers per hour.
The test flight was applauded by SpaceX employees as well as those at NASA.
“Despite the loss of many parts and a damaged flap, the Starship managed to land gently in the ocean!” Musk said on X, the social platform he owns.
The New York Times reported that looking at SpaceX employees outside of mission control “enthusiastic applause, seeing the result as a validation of the company’s break it, then fix it engineering approach.”
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson applauded the progress Thursday. NASA plans to use a SpaceX spacecraft for Artemis III, which is scheduled to take astronauts to the Moon in late 2026.
“We are another step closer to returning humanity to the Moon through #Artemis – and then looking to Mars,” Nelson wrote.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
