This time SpaceX launched its Starship prototype on a test flight and it landed in one piece.
The launch of SN15, as in serial number 15, took place from the company’s test site in Boca Chica, Texas after 6:30 p.m. EDT on Wednesday.
“We got some great views of the engines lighting up as we came down for a landing in a nice, slow velocity into the concrete landing pad,” said SpaceX commentator John Insprucker from live stream of the launch and landing that lasted just over 6 minutes.”
Only one of the previous four launches of a Starship prototype was able to land upright, but even that one exploded soon after it touched down.
“This flight includes multiple upgrades and improvements to address the findings from the rapid unplanned disassembly we experienced on the last flight,” Insprucker said. “This vehicle also incorporates changes that get us closer to the orbital configuration planned for flight later.”
The flight once again hit at least 10 km altitude in which its three Raptor engines cut off in sequence, followed by the prototype flipping for a horizontal unpowered descent before lighting up again, returning to a vertical position and then successfully landing.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk chimed in on Twitter to say, “Starship landing nominal!”
The new prototype included enhanced avionics and propellant architecture as well as a new Raptor engine design and configuration. The upgrades allowed for a more controlled aerodynamic descent using body flaps, and lessening the chance for another “rapid unplanned disassembly.”
“This capability will enable a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo on long-duration, interplanetary flights and help humanity return to the moon, and travel to Mars and beyond,” reads a statement on the SpaceX website.
Plans are for SpaceX to continue proving out flight ability for Starship with higher altitudes, and eventually orbital test flights. The tests follow a similar method it used when developing its Falcon rockets. Starship is the company’s eventual replacement for its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.
The Starship design is meant to be used for both suborbital point-to-point flights on Earth and for deep-space missions. The full version will feature six Raptor engines, stand about 165 feet tall and have a 100-passenger capacity. The large version of Starship would be coupled with a Super Heavy booster with 37 Raptor engines combined for Mars colonization plans.
SpaceX was recently awarded the contract from NASA to use a lunar Starship design as the Human Landing System for the Artemis III mission, during which NASA aims to land the first people on the moon, including the first woman, since the Apollo missions ended in 1972.
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