SpaceX rocket completes first full test flight after surviving re-entry
Al Jazeera
The flight marks a major milestone for a rocket system that may one day send people to Mars.
SpaceX’s Starship rocket has completed its first-ever full flight, after surviving re-entry in a breakthrough for the prototype system that may one day send people to Mars.
Three previous missions have ended with the rocket, which stands nearly 121 metres (400 feet) tall, blowing up or disintegrating, but this time Starship survived re-entry and made a controlled fall into the Indian Ocean just 65 minutes after launching from the US state of Texas.
“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 wrote on X, the social media platform he owns.
“Today was a great day for humanity’s future as a spacefaring civilization!” he added.
Starship blasted off from the company’s Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, at 7.50am (12:50 GMT), before soaring to space and coasting halfway across the globe.
