Spaces has reached a key milestone in Starship's flight test campaign: it returned the upper stage boosters to Earth during a controlled fall into the ocean. About it UNN writes with reference to Deutsche Welle and Techcrunch.
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A two-stage rocket with the Starship lunar spacecraft was launched from a spaceport on the Gulf Coast. A multiple first stage was able to land in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Starship ship itself lost control at an altitude of about 50 km, but did not completely collapse. Despite the loss of many parts and damage, it was able to land in the ocean
The company's long-term plans include the return to Earth of two parts of the launch vehicle - a super-heavy accelerator and an upper stage, also called Starship. The ultimate goal is to deliver the Super Heavy rocket and Starship upper stage back to Starbase, SpaceX's private Starship launch and development site in Southeast Texas, where they will land vertically on solid ground. A controlled fall into the ocean is the first step to implementing this plan.
SpaceX calls the reusable spacecraft a revolutionary achievement in the field of space flight and research, which in the future may allow humanity to master Mars and other planets. Super Heavy can also dramatically reduce the cost of creating constellations of Starlink - type satellites-according to calculations, one launch will allow you to launch about 200 vehicles. Previous Starship missions took place in April 2023, November 2023, and March of this year. The last March launch ended in failure: SpaceX lost the ship, but before that it was able to put it into orbit.