SpaceX recently launched its fifth test flight of the Starship rocket, making a dramatic first catch of its more than 20-story tall booster. The rocket was launched from the Starbase facility near Brownsville, Texas. The Super Heavy booster returned to land on the arms of the company’s launch tower in a dramatic catch. Starship continued on to space and aimed to travel halfway around the Earth before reentering the atmosphere and splashing down in the Indian Ocean.
There were no people on board the fifth Starship flight, as SpaceX has been conducting test flights to achieve various milestones. The goal of the Starship system is to be fully reusable and to become a new method of flying cargo and people beyond Earth. The rocket is also critical to NASA’s plan to return astronauts to the moon, as SpaceX won a multibillion-dollar contract from the agency to use Starship as a crewed lunar lander as part of the Artemis moon program.
With the successful booster catch, SpaceX has surpassed milestones from previous flights. The company has spent years preparing for the catch attempt, with technicians putting in tens of thousands of hours to maximize chances for success. If conditions are not right for the return, the booster would divert to splash down in the Gulf of Mexico. The Starship rocket is both the tallest and most powerful ever launched, standing at 397 feet tall when fully stacked on the Super Heavy booster and powered by liquid oxygen and liquid methane.
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