By outdoor-nature-child.com On Sunday, October 13, SpaceX conducted its fifth test flight of the Starship spacecraft in Texas, marking a significant milestone for the company. For the first time, SpaceX successfully captured the Super Heavy rocket booster using a massive robotic arm and returned it to the launch pad. This achievement brings SpaceX closer to its ambitious goal of developing rockets capable of reaching the Moon and Mars.
Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, expressed his excitement on social media platform X, stating, “The launch pad caught the rocket!”
According to Bloomberg, this successful test highlights SpaceX’s impressive progress in launch capabilities, despite Musk’s ongoing clashes with regulatory agencies and emerging opposition to its expansion plans. Recently, not only did SpaceX secure critical operational approvals for two of its rocket systems, but its Starlink satellite internet business continues to grow globally.
The recovery of the booster is a crucial milestone as SpaceX prepares for commercial operations of Starship. The company indicated that once Starship is operational, it could accelerate its pace of access to space. Morgan Stanley estimates the cost of a single Starship flight at $100 million, with projections suggesting it could eventually drop to $50 million.
Starship is central to Musk’s vision of sending humans to the Moon and Mars, but there’s still a long journey ahead to ensure the safe transport of crew and cargo to distant destinations.
This launch system is the largest in history and lifted off at 8:25 AM ET on Sunday. After successfully sending the Starship into space, the Super Heavy booster returned to its launch point on Earth, reigniting mid-descent to slow its landing. As the two arms extending from the Starship launch pad successfully “caught” the booster, cheers and applause erupted from the mission control center.
SpaceX senior manager who hosted the live stream, said, “Folks, this is a day that will go down in engineering history.”
Musk has long championed the idea of fully reusable rockets. While SpaceX has gained global recognition for successfully recovering its Falcon 9 boosters, Bloomberg notes that these vehicles are only partially reusable, with some components being destroyed or left unused after each mission.