SpaceX carried out the most daring test flight ever with its massive Starship rocket on Sunday, catching the booster back on the launch pad with mechanical arms.
A jubilant Elon Musk called it “science fiction without the fiction part.”
Towering nearly 400 feet (121 meters), the empty Starship took off at sunrise from the southern tip of Texas, near the Mexican border. It flew over the Gulf of Mexico like the four spacecraft before it which ended up being destroyed, either shortly after takeoff or while landing in the sea. The previous one, in June, had been the most successful until ‘at Sunday’s demo, completing its flight without exploding.
This time, Musk, CEO and founder of SpaceX, took on the challenge of the rocket he plans to use to send people back to the Moon and Mars.
On orders from the flight director, the first stage booster returned to the launch pad where it had taken off seven minutes earlier. The launch tower’s monstrous metal arms, nicknamed wands, caught the stainless steel booster descending 232 feet (71 meters) and gripped it tightly, swinging it high above the ground.
“The tower caught the rocket!!” Musk announced this via X. “A big step towards creating multiplanetary life was taken today.”
The company’s employees shouted with joy, jumping and raising their fists in the air. NASA joined the celebration, with Administrator Bill Nelson sending his congratulations.
Continued testing of the Starship will prepare the country for landing astronauts at the Moon’s south pole, Nelson noted. NASA’s new Artemis program follows Apollo, which sent 12 men to the Moon more than half a century ago.
“Folks, this is a day for the engineering history books,” said Kate Tice, SpaceX’s chief engineering officer, from SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
“Even today, what we just saw is magical,” added company spokesperson Dan Huot, near the launch and landing site. “I’m shaking right now.”
It was up to the flight director to decide, in real time using manual control, whether to attempt the landing. SpaceX said the booster and launch tower must be in good condition and stable. Otherwise, he was going to end up in the abyss like the previous ones. Everything was deemed ready for capture.
The retro-looking spacecraft launched by the booster continued to circle the world, rising to more than 212 kilometers in height. An hour after takeoff, he made a controlled landing in the Indian Ocean, adding to the day’s feat. Cameras mounted on a nearby buoy showed flames shooting out of the water as the spacecraft hit precisely the targeted spot and sank, as planned.
“What a day,” Huot said. “Let’s get ready for the next one.”
The June flight ultimately failed after pieces broke off. SpaceX upgraded the software and reworked the heat shield, improving the thermal tiles.
SpaceX has been recovering the first stage propellants of its smaller Falcon 9 rockets for nine years, after putting satellites and crews into orbit from Florida or California. But they land on floating ocean platforms or concrete slabs several kilometers from their launch pads – not on them.
Recycling Falcon boosters accelerated the pace of launches and saved SpaceX millions. Musk intends to do the same for Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built with 33 methane engines on booster alone.
Musk said the captured Starship’s thruster appeared to be in good condition, with just a little warping of some of the outer engines from all the heat and aerodynamic forces. This can be easily fixed, he noted.
NASA has ordered two spacecraft to land astronauts on the Moon later this decade. SpaceX intends to use Starship to send people and supplies to the Moon and eventually Mars.
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