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SpaceX’s Starship completed its fifth test flight on Sunday.
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The company achieved its main goal: returning the booster to the launch site.
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The upper stage also successfully returned to Earth, landing in the Indian Ocean.
SpaceX has conducted its fifth flight test of Starship, the world’s most powerful rocket that Elon Musk hopes will one day take humans to Mars.
The spacecraft launched shortly after 8 a.m. ET on Sunday in Boca Chica, Texas.
The test made history as it marked the first time the spacecraft’s Super Heavy booster was returned and captured at the launch site.
The booster separated from the rocket’s upper stage just under three minutes after liftoff. It then returned to the launch pad, where it was captured by “chopsticks” on the launch tower.
The next phase of the test involved monitoring the rocket’s upper stage as it descended back into Earth’s atmosphere.
The upper stage made a controlled return to Earth, landing in the Indian Ocean around 9:30 a.m. ET.
It follows a successful fourth flight test in June, in which both the Super Heavy booster and the rocket’s upper stage lands in the ocean after launch.
The booster landed in the Gulf of Mexico after detaching from the upper stage, while it eventually landed in the Indian Ocean after re-entering the atmosphere.
According to SpaceX’s website, the fifth test flight was intended to take the spacecraft “another step toward full and rapid reusability.”
The spacecraft underwent several major upgrades ahead of Sunday’s test flight, including a rework of the heat shield.
SpaceX said its engineers spent 12,000 hours replacing Starship’s thermal protection system with “newer generation tiles, a backup ablative layer and additional protection between the flap structures.”
“This massive effort, along with updates to the ship’s operations and re-entry and landing software, will improve on the previous flight and propel Starship to a soft landing in the target area in the Indian Ocean,” the company said.
SpaceX’s Crew-8 mission to undock from the International Space Station and return to Earth was also scheduled to begin on Sunday.
But the company said adverse weather conditions off the coast of Florida – the planned landing site – meant SpaceX and NASA were “pulling out.”
“Teams will continue to monitor weather conditions for the next opportunity,” the company said.
Read the original article on Business Insider
