SpaceX has achieved a milestone in its quest to put humans on the surface of the Red Planet, with the company etching itself into the history books once again with the first attempt and success of the Starship rocket on the Mechazilla launch tower.
SpaceX has been working toward this moment for many years, and with the fifth launch of the world's largest and most powerful rocket, Starship, the Elon Musk-led company has landed the approximately 250-foot-tall booster Super Heavy back on the launch pad at Starbase. The moment was witnessed by thousands of onlookers and quickly became a viral sensation as Mechazilla's arms, referred to by SpaceX as its "chopsticks," slotted and caught the massive booster for a smooth touchdown.
Why is this important? Flight 5 was the highest stake flight of Starship yet as failure would have resulted in a potentially destroyed Mechazilla tower, launch pad, and launch site - all of which would have further postponed the development of Starship. However, that didn't happen, and SpaceX landed it on the first go, meaning the company is one step closer to achieving rapid reusability with Starship.
SpaceX intends to nail the Starship launch process to a frequency of its workhorse Falcon 9 rockets, if not more, which would entail multiple Starship rockets transporting cargo - including humans - to different orbit, the Moon, and eventually, Mars. Furthermore, SpaceX has penciled in Starship to transport NASA's Artemis 3 mission, which involves landing astronauts on the moon by 2026.
"The SpaceX Starship's latest test flight is its most successful yet. The return of the first stage booster to the launch pad and its capture in the giant 'Mechzillia' mechanical arms is a technical triumph that has caught public attention. The Starship spacecraft travelled into space and reentered the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean as planned.
"The test flight represents a milestone on the path towards a fully reusable rocket that can lift 100 tons of payload into orbit. SpaceX has previously recovered smaller first stage boosters from Falcon rockets, which have landed on barges or concrete pads. In contrast, the Starship booster returned to its launch site, which offers the prospect of it being refuelled and relaunched from the same site.
"The reusability of Falcon rocket boosters has helped SpaceX reduce costs and dominate the commercial launch market. Increasing reusability and minimising the refurbishment required before relaunching could further reduce costs with Starship. This could open the door to ambitious space exploration later this decade and beyond. However, I suspect a fully reusable Starship will initially be used for commercial launches into Earth orbit, including vast satellite constellations," wrote Michael Brown, Associate Professor, Monash School of Physics and Astronomy in an email