SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket launch fulfilled a series of ambitious goals on Thursday that Elon Musk, the company’s chief executive, set ahead of its fourth test flight.
The flight, while not a perfect success, gave an indication of Mr. Musk’s vision of building the most powerful rocket ever and making it reusable could once again transform the global space launch industry that his company already dominates. That’s likely to be encouraging for NASA officials, who will use the Starship version to send astronauts to the lunar surface in the Artemis III mission, currently scheduled for late 2026. .
Bill Nelson, administrator of NASA, sent congratulations to X, the social networking site that Mr. Musk owns.
“We’re one step closer to returning humanity to the Moon via #Artemis—then on to Mars,” he wrote.
The Starship vehicle in the upper stage was lifted into space, flew halfway around the world, survived the scorching heat of atmospheric re-entry and then landed in the Indian Ocean as planned.
During descent, cameras on the spacecraft captured the colorful glow of the gases heating up below it. At about 30 miles altitude, a portion of one of the rudders began to separate but it remained firmly held together. Vision was then obstructed as debris shattered the camera lens.
“The question is how much is left of the ship,” said Kate Tice, one of the hosts of the SpaceX broadcast.
But the real-time data continued to flow back, relayed via SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites, to the company’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California, until the altitude was reported as zero – rotation back to the surface of the Indian Ocean.
The final maneuver to flip the Starship into an upright position just before landing is commanded.
“Despite the loss of many bricks and a damaged flap, the Starship still landed smoothly in the ocean!” Mr. Musk wrote on X.
A crowd of SpaceX employees observing outside mission control cheered wildly, seeing the results as confirmation of the company’s break-then-repair engineering approach.
Earlier in the flight, the rocket’s first stage, the giant Super Heavy booster with 33 engines, could also perform maneuvers that would in the future return it to the launch site. For this flight, it performed a simulated landing in the Gulf of Mexico.
What is Starship and why is it important?
With the Starship spacecraft resting on what SpaceX calls a super heavy booster, this rocket system is, by almost every measure, the largest and most powerful ever.
This rocket is the tallest ever built – 397 feet tall, about 90 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty, including the pedestal.
The rocket also has the most engines ever in its booster: the Super Heavy has 33 of SpaceX’s powerful Raptor engines protruding from its bottom. When those engines lift the Starship off the launch pad, they will generate 16 million pounds of thrust at top speed.
For Mr. Musk, Starship is really a Mars ship. He envisions a fleet of Starships carrying settlers to the Red Planet.
For NASA, this vehicle will be a lunar lander, carrying astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972.
Going forward, SpaceX also plans to use Starship to deploy the next generation of Starlink internet communications satellites.
A further transformative feature of Starship is that it is designed to be completely reusable. That capability has the potential to cut the cost of sending payloads into orbit — sending 100 tons into space a day, for example, could cost less than $10 million, Mr. Musk predicted.
What is SpaceX trying to achieve with this flight?
A few weeks ago, after a successful launch rehearsal, Mr. Musk wrote on X that for this flight, “The main goal is to overcome maximum heating upon re-entry.”
In other words, he didn’t want the car to burn.
During launch, Starship reached an orbital speed of more than 17,000 miles per hour while reaching an altitude of 145 miles. As the spacecraft reenters the atmosphere, it experiences temperatures of up to 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit.
On Thursday, Starship endured the heat and landed in a remote part of the Indian Ocean. Another goal is to softly land the first stage, the super-heavy booster, in the Gulf of Mexico.
In future operational flights, both vehicles will return to the launch site and be caught in pieces by the launch tower. Those efforts are still in the future.
What happened on the last flight?
Previous launch in March for the first time reached speeds fast enough for Starship to enter orbit. The ascent included a successful new twist: hot stage separation, when some of the second stage engines ignited before the Super Heavy or first stage turbocharger separated and fell away.
The second part of Starship accomplished several goals as it flew through space, including opening and closing the spacecraft’s payload door and demonstrating propellant moving between two tanks inside the vehicle.
But as it descended to the highest point in its orbit, the Starship began to lose control. Camera on board catches orange light Hot plasma underneath the spacecraft. About 49 minutes after launch, it disintegrated and contact was lost at an altitude of 40 miles.
Earlier in the flight, the Super Heavy booster was intended to simulate a landing in the Gulf of Mexico. However, 6 of the 13 engines used for that operation shut down prematurely.
SpaceX blamed a blockage in the propellant flow as the most likely cause of the loss of Starship and the super-heavy booster. The company said it has made changes to address those issues.
