SpaceX launched its Super-heavy starship The rocket will take place on Monday for the 11th time, marking another successful test flight, building on previous launches.
Elon Muskfounder and CEO of SpaceX, appeared briefly on the company's livestream before the launch, saying it was the first time he was going outside to watch the rocket.
“I’m usually in charge of mission control and stuff,” Musk told the livestream hosts. “It will actually be much more intuitive.”
Soon after this Starship – the largest and most powerful rocket ever built—roared into the evening sky from the southern tip of Texas. The booster lifted off and made a controlled entry into the Persian Gulf as planned, with the spacecraft gliding through space before descending into the Indian Ocean. Nothing was restored.
Eric Gay/AP
It was the 11th test flight of the full-scale Starship that Musk intends to use to send people to Mars. NASA's needs are more pressing. The space agency won't be able to land astronauts on the moon by the end of the decade without the 403-foot Starship, a reusable vehicle designed to carry them from lunar orbit to the surface and back.
Previous test flight in August – success after series of explosive failures — we went along the same path with similar goals. During this time, more maneuvering capabilities were created, especially for the spacecraft. SpaceX has planned a series of tests during the spacecraft's re-entry over the Indian Ocean as practice for future landings at the spaceport.
As before, Starship delivered eight mock-up satellites simulating SpaceX's Starlinks. The entire flight was supposed to last just over an hour and took off from a Starbase near the Mexican border.
SpaceX is modifying its launch pads at Cape Canaveral to accommodate spacecraft as well as much smaller Falcon rockets used to ferry astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station for NASA.
