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Thursday, June 6th, 2024 3:22 pm EDT
Key Points
- SpaceX successfully completed a milestone test flight of its Starship rocket, achieving a controlled return of the booster in the Gulf of Mexico and a splashdown of the rocket in the Indian Ocean, marking significant progress in its goal of creating a fully reusable launch system.
- The Starship system, designed for carrying cargo and people beyond Earth, is critical to NASA’s Artemis program for returning astronauts to the moon. SpaceX secured a multibillion-dollar contract from NASA for this purpose, with the latest test flight further demonstrating the rocket’s capabilities.
- SpaceX’s iterative development approach, emphasizing “recursive improvement” from previous test flights, continues to advance the Starship project. The company has invested significantly in its development, with CEO Elon Musk estimating a $2 billion expenditure in 2023 alone.
SpaceX successfully completed a milestone test flight of its Starship rocket, marking significant progress in its development of the reusable vehicle. The test, which took place on Thursday from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, saw the Starship rocket achieve several key objectives. The booster, an essential component of the rocket, was successfully returned and splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico for the first time, a critical step toward SpaceX’s goal of making Starship launches routine, similar to its Falcon 9 rockets. This flight also marked the first time Starship survived reentry through Earth’s atmosphere and completed a mission by splashing down in the Indian Ocean, further demonstrating its resilience to the intense heat of reentry.
The unmanned flight is part of SpaceX’s strategy to conduct hundreds of Starship missions before introducing crewed flights. The Starship system, designed to be fully reusable, is central to NASA’s Artemis moon program, with SpaceX securing a multibillion-dollar contract to use Starship as a crewed lunar lander. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson congratulated SpaceX, emphasizing the progress made towards returning humans to the moon and eventually reaching Mars.
Previous Starship flights, including tests in April 2023, November, and March, progressively achieved more milestones, though each ended with the rocket’s destruction. The latest flight built on these lessons, showcasing capabilities like the booster’s controlled return and the rocket’s intact reentry. The approach reflects SpaceX’s philosophy of “recursive improvement,” where even failures provide valuable insights that drive progress.
SpaceX continues to innovate and refine its Starship rocket, the tallest and most powerful ever launched. The rocket, standing 397 feet tall when fully assembled on the Super Heavy booster, relies on a massive thrust generated by 33 Raptor engines, producing 16.7 million pounds of thrust, significantly more than NASA’s Space Launch System. The reusable system aims to revolutionize space travel, making it more efficient and cost-effective.
Elon Musk has indicated substantial financial commitment to Starship’s development, with an estimated $2 billion spent in 2023 alone. The recent test flight’s success, characterized by controlled landing and intact reentry, represents a major leap towards SpaceX’s vision of a fully reusable rocket system capable of delivering cargo and people to the moon and Mars. This mission underscores SpaceX’s incremental yet persistent progress in developing advanced spaceflight technologies, aligning with their long-term goals of interplanetary exploration and routine space missions.
For the full original article on CNBC, please click here: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/06/spacex-starship-fourth-test-spaceflight.html
