This week SpaceX accomplished an engineering feat. On its fifth test flight, the 121-meter-high Starship rocket made a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean, while the first stage, the 71-meter Super Heavy booster, was captured upon arrival on land by the mechanical arms of the launch pad tower.
This is what made the headlines. Even the upper stage of about 50 meters managed to perform a textbook flight orbiting the Earth for almost an hour and then performing a “belly bump” maneuver to further slow its descent. It then fired its thrusters to right itself and slow its descent onto the ocean surface.
“Dressing confirmed!” the official SpaceX account tweeted. “Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting fifth Starship flight test!”
Splashdown confirmed! Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting fifth flight test of Starship! pic.twitter.com/FhCGznq9RO
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 13, 2024
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk called it a big victory. “The ship landed exactly on the target! – Musk tweeted. -. The second of the two objectives was achieved.”he added, probably referring to the company capturing the Super Heavy rocket.
But seconds later, A remotely operated camera floating in the water recorded it rising in a huge fireballa dramatic end to an otherwise textbook test release.
Starship Flight 5 Splashdown! @SpaceX‘s Starship vehicle has successfully soft-landed in the Indian Ocean, then tipped over and appeared to explode as it fell into the sea. ‘Starship has landed,’ SpaceX says. Recovery was never intended for this Ship. pic.twitter.com/TTBVGOJVpY
— Tariq J. Malik (@tariqjmalik) October 13, 2024
The reality is that previous test flights had not gone so well. On the final flight in June, the massive spacecraft survived its descent largely intact, but fell helplessly into the ocean. At that point, Starship’s aerodynamic “flaps” were destroyed by the extreme forces involved.
The company’s test flights in 2023 they largely ended in massive explosionsforcing the company to reboot for many months and deal with the consequences.
During its final flight, Starship could be seen slowly engulfed in plasma while reentering the Earth’s atmosphere at about 20,000 km/h. The spacecraft’s hexagonal heat shield plates protected it from the extreme temperatures involved. Even the flaps looked much better this time compared to the company’s June test flight.
The next flight, dubbed Flight 6, has already received the green light from the Federal Aviation Administration, setting the stage for another exciting launch. Naturally, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took the opportunity today to reiterate their ambitions to develop a city on Mars with the help of the spaceship.
“If civilization is reasonably stable over the next ~30 years, a self-sustaining city of over a million people will be built on Mars,” he tweeted.