‘The Starship has landed’: SpaceX nails reusable craft touchdown

All four earlier attempts to land the rocket, designed for travel to the moon and Mars, ended in spectacular crashes.

SpaceX has achieved the first successful touchdown of its prototype Starship rocket during the latest test flight of the next-generation launch vehicle in southern Texas in the United States after four previous landing attempts ended in explosions. Wednesday’s feat marked a key milestone for the private rocket company of billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk in its development of a reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle to eventually carry astronauts and large cargo payloads to the moon and Mars. The Starship SN15 blasted off from the SpaceX launch site in Boca Chica, Texas, along the Gulf Coast and reached its planned maximum altitude of 10km (6 miles), then hovered momentarily before flying nose-down under aerodynamic control back towards Earth.