This story originally appeared WIRED Italy and was translated from Italian.
SpaceX has reached an significant milestone in testing the Starship spacecraft it wants to employ on crewed missions to the Moon and Mars. After yesterday’s test launch, the super-heavy booster that launches the spacecraft returned to Earth and landed in the Mechazilla launch tower, marking the first-ever attempt at this maneuver. This success brings SpaceX one step closer to realizing its ambition to make Starship a fully reusable space system.
After detaching from the spacecraft after launch and burning off most of its fuel, the 70-meter-long Super Ponderous used 13 of its 33 engines for a controlled descent before turning off all but three and climbing the two metal arms of the launch tower in Boca Chica, Texas. The entire process, from takeoff to landing on Mechazilla’s “sticks,” as SpaceX called the arms, took seven minutes.
Meanwhile, the Starship spacecraft continued flying for about an hour after separating from the Super Ponderous, powering itself with six engines, before crashing into the Indian Ocean.
The last test before yesterday took place in June, when both the rocket and the spacecraft, despite some earnest problems, managed to survive re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere and practice landing in the oceans, with the Super Ponderous to simulate its future return to the launch tower by maneuvering in controlled descent to a specific location on the Gulf of Mexico.
Landing rockets after flight is a feat SpaceX has already accomplished many times with its smallest Falcon 9 rocket, which is the basis of its current operations. The spacecraft, however, is a much more powerful and complicated system than the Falcon 9. With 33 engines, which are more powerful than those used in the Falcon, the super-heavy booster provides about 10 times more thrust at launch and is a much larger piece of machinery, making the landing feat more hard.
Although SpaceX is still in the Starship testing phase, the goal is to employ the Super Ponderous tower and Mechazilla to avoid having to build up-to-date rockets for each launch, which will significantly reduce the cost of launches and consequently enhance their frequency. Rapid reuse will be necessary if SpaceX wants to achieve its goal of dramatically reducing the time and cost of transporting cargo and people to orbit and into space. Super Ponderous’s ultimate goal, SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk said CNNinvolves placing the rocket on the launch pad within a few minutes of its return, which will enable the vehicle to take off again after refueling just 30 minutes after landing.
With the success of the Super Ponderous landing, SpaceX can now move on to its next challenge: refueling the spacecraft in orbit, which will be necessary to send one of these spacecraft to the Moon.