SpaceX successfully launched the Starship rocket for the 5th time and brought the Super Heavy booster stage back to the launch pad with a robotic arm.
The 122 m high Starship rocket was test-launched by SpaceX for the 5th time from Starbase, Texas at 12:25 on October 13. This rocket carries a historic mission when it brings the Super Heavy booster stage back to the launch pad with the “chopstick” robotic arm of the Mechazilla launch tower.
About 7 minutes after launch, Super Heavy landed precisely near the Mechazilla tower and was held by the robot arm. “This is a historic day for engineering. It’s unbelievable! On the first try, we successfully caught the Super Heavy booster back into the launch tower,” Kate Tice, Quality Systems Manager SpaceX, shared during the live broadcast.
From the launch pad, SpaceX spokesman Dan Huot added: “Even in this day and age, what we just saw looks like magic.”
The SpaceX Starship took off from Starbase near Boca Chica, Texas, on October 13 to perform the Starship Flight 5 test flight. Photo: AFP
In addition to catching the booster stage, SpaceX also aims to send the Starship’s upper stage, 50 m high, into space and then land it in the Indian Ocean. This occurred approximately 65 minutes after launch. The upper stage activated three of its six engines to hover over the ocean before capsizing and exploding.
SpaceX is developing Starship with the goal of supporting human settlement on the Moon and Mars. Starship is designed to be completely and rapidly reusable, reducing time between flights and reducing costs.
SpaceX aims to complete Starship in time through its usual development strategy: tweak and test on test flights, then repeat the process. Starship in its fifth test flight has had some significant modifications compared to previous versions. SpaceX spent more than 12,000 hours replacing the entire thermal protection system with newer generation panels, a redundant anti-wear layer, and additional protection measures between the wing structures.
Starship’s four previous test flights took place in April and November 2023, March and June 2024. The rocket has performed better with each successive flight. The first flight lasted only 4 minutes because SpaceX detonated the rocket in mid-air after the two stages failed to separate. However, the fourth flight on June 6 was a complete success when the upper stage reached orbital speed and both stages survived returning to Earth, landing in designated areas.
Starship is a launch system with the ambition of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to bring humans to Mars for the first time. Starship is the tallest (120 m) and most powerful rocket ever built, capable of generating nearly 8,000 tons of thrust upon launch.
NASA chose the Starship to bring astronauts to the Moon in the Artemis program. When the Starship makes its journey to the Moon, it will have to stay in low-Earth orbit while SpaceX launches separate support vehicles to refuel the ship. The mission to carry astronauts to the Moon will take place as early as 2026.