Elon Musk’s SpaceX launches mega Starship rocket; fifth test flight

Elon Musk's SpaceX launched its enormous Starship rocket on Sunday on its boldest test flight yet, striving to catch the returning booster back at the pad with mechanical arms, reported the news agency PTI citing an AP report. 

PTI
Updated13 Oct 2024, 06:27 PM IST
This still image taken from a SpaceX broadcast shows the Starship's Super Heavy Booster being grappled mid-air as it returns to the launch pad at Starbase near Boca Chica, Texas, on October 13, 2024, during the Starship Flight 5 test.
This still image taken from a SpaceX broadcast shows the Starship’s Super Heavy Booster being grappled mid-air as it returns to the launch pad at Starbase near Boca Chica, Texas, on October 13, 2024, during the Starship Flight 5 test.(AFP PHOTO / SpaceX)

Boca Chica (US), Oct 13 (AP) SpaceX launched its enormous Starship rocket on Sunday on its boldest test flight yet, striving to catch the returning booster back at the pad with mechanical arms.

Towering almost 400 feet (121 metres), the empty Starship blasted off at sunrise from the southern tip of Texas near the Mexican border. It arced over the Gulf of Mexico like the four Starships before it that ended up being destroyed, either soon after liftoff or while ditching into the sea. The last one in June was the most successful yet, completing its flight without exploding.

Also Read | The tug of war over SpaceX launching the biggest rocket ever

This time, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk upped the challenge and risk. The company aimed to bring the first-stage booster back to land at the pad from which it had soared several minutes earlier. The launch tower sported monstrous metal arms, dubbed chopsticks, ready to catch the descending 232-foot (71-metre) booster.

Also Read | Reliance Jio lobbies against TRAI’s allocation method amid Elon Musk face-off

It was up to the flight director to decide, real time with a manual control, whether to attempt the landing. SpaceX said both the booster and launch tower had to be in good, stable condition. Otherwise, it was going to end up in the gulf like the previous ones.

Once free of the booster, the retro-looking stainless steel spacecraft on top was going to continue around the world, targeting a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The June flight came up short at the end after pieces came off. SpaceX upgraded the software and reworked the heat shield, improving the thermal tiles.

Also Read | Sunita Williams to return to Earth with SpaceX ‘next February’: NASA

SpaceX has been recovering the first-stage boosters of its smaller Falcon 9 rockets for nine years, after delivering satellites and crews to orbit from Florida or California. But they land on floating ocean platforms or on concrete slabs several miles from their launch pads — not on them.

Recycling Falcon boosters has sped up the launch rate and saved SpaceX millions. Musk intends to do the same for Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built with 33 methane-fuel engines on the booster alone. NASA has ordered two Starships to land astronauts on the moon later this decade. SpaceX intends to use Starship to send people and supplies to the moon and, eventually Mars. (AP) SCY SCY

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First Published:13 Oct 2024, 06:27 PM IST
Business NewsNewsUs NewsElon Musk’s SpaceX launches mega Starship rocket; fifth test flight

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