SpaceX’s Starship rocket successfully returned from space and achieved a crucial landing test in the Indian Ocean on Thursday. This marked a significant milestone in its fourth test mission around the globe, after previous attempts ended in failure.
Launching from SpaceX’s Boca Chica site near Brownsville, Texas, at 7:50 a.m. CDT (1250 GMT), the nearly 400-foot (120-meter) tall rocket system completed its mission just 65 minutes later. This mission is part of Elon Musk’s ambitious multibillion-dollar campaign to develop a reusable satellite launcher and moon lander.
After three unsuccessful attempts, Starship’s controlled descent into the Indian Ocean demonstrated the vehicle’s potential for reusable space travel. The rocket’s first launch in April 2023 exploded shortly after liftoff, the second attempt in November 2023 also ended in an explosion, and the third in March 2024 disintegrated during atmospheric reentry.
In this latest test, Starship launched atop the Super Heavy rocket booster, which separated at an altitude of 74 km (46 miles) and executed a soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, Starship itself reached space and coasted around the Earth at 16,000 miles per hour (25,750 km/h), before reentering the atmosphere and successfully landing in the Indian Ocean.
During reentry, onboard cameras captured the intense heat and plasma surrounding the spacecraft, showcasing the durability of its hexagonal heat-shield tiles despite losing some tiles and suffering damage to a steering flap. The spacecraft reignited an engine to flip upright, ultimately achieving a soft landing.
“Despite loss of many tiles and a damaged flap, Starship made it all the way to a soft landing in the ocean!” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted on social media.
This success is crucial for SpaceX, which aims to use Starship to land astronauts on the moon for NASA by 2026, in a race against China, which has similar lunar ambitions by 2030. The Starship’s fully reusable design is intended to be more cost-effective and powerful than the Falcon 9 rocket, supporting SpaceX’s dominant position in satellite launches and astronaut missions.
However, development has been slower than anticipated. A Japanese billionaire who booked a moon flight with Starship in 2018 recently canceled due to scheduling uncertainties. Musk has emphasized the need for Starship to launch hundreds of times before it can carry humans, suggesting a prolonged timeline before it can land astronauts on the lunar surface.
SpaceX continues to fly astronauts to and from the International Space Station using its Crew Dragon capsule on Falcon 9 rockets. No private company has yet sent humans to the moon.