Catch up: SpaceX hit stunning new milestones

Today’s test flight will be counted as a roaring success at SpaceX.

Not only did the Super Heavy booster survive its daring return back to the launchpad, the Starship spacecraft appeared to fare much better during its descent back from space — avoiding the severe wear and tear that veered its predecessor off target during the last test in June.

Here’s what’s gone down so far:

The Super Heavy rocket booster fired up its 33 engines at SpaceX’s launch facilities in South Texas just before 7:30 a.m. CT (8:30 a.m. ET.)

After spending most of its fuel, the Super Heavy booster detached from the Starship spacecraft and steered itself back to the launch site — marking the first time that SpaceX has recovered the rocket after launch. SpaceX eventually hopes to refurbish and refly the Super Heavy booster and Starship spacecraft.

The Starship vehicle went on to fire up its own six engines and continue soaring into space. The spacecraft coasted for a while before descending back to Earth, dragged down by gravity and enduring extreme temperatures and friction.

The Starship reentered Earth’s atmosphere about 50 minutes after takeoff. The vehicle then attempted a belly flop maneuver — plummeting toward the ground horizontally — before using its on board engines to swoop back to a vertical orientation.

Starship splashed down in the ocean, as expected. SpaceX did not intend to attempt to recover the vehicle after this flight.

Starship is the most powerful rocket ever built — by far

You may have heard Starship is the biggest rocket ever created. And it is — by a long shot.

Starship stands at nearly 400 feet (121 meters) tall and packs 16.7 million pounds (7,590 tons) of force at liftoff.

Let’s compare that to some of the other largest rockets ever constructed — past and present.

Falcon Heavy: SpaceX’s own 230-foot-tall (70-meter-tall) rocket that previously held the title for most powerful operational rocket in the world. It has about 5 million pounds of thrust or roughly one-third of Starship’s power.

Saturn V: The famous NASA rocket that powered the Apollo moon landings of the 20th century put out about 7.6 million pounds of thrust at takeoff. That’s still less than half of Starship’s expected power. It stood at about 360 feet (110 meters) tall.

The Space Shuttle: NASA’s workhorse launch system in the post-Apollo era, the shuttle had two solid rocket boosters that gave off about 5.3 million pounds of force at liftoff. It was about 180 feet (55 meters) tall.

Space Launch System: NASA’s new moon rocket, which made its debut launch last year, is currently the most powerful rocket in operation. It produces about 8.8 million pounds of thrust — just over half the Starship’s expected output. It’s 212 feet (65 meters) tall.

Russian N1 rocket: This was Russia’s megamoon rocket of the 20th-century space race. And while it was never operational (all four launch attempts failed), Musk has said it’s the closest relative of Starship’s design. The N1 was expected to give off more than 10 million pounds of thrust at liftoff — still 40% less than Starship.

Starship goals? This vehicle could take humans to the moon and Mars

SpaceX — and NASA — have huge goals for this rocket.

NASA wants to use Starship to carry out the final leg of the journey to put astronauts back on the moon for the first time in five decades as part of its Artemis program. The space agency gave SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract in 2021 to get the job done, and it inked another $1 billion deal after that.

Starship is also the linchpin of SpaceX’s goal of getting humans to Mars. The company’s founding purpose is to make humans a multi-planetary species, sending them to live on other planets in case Earth becomes unsuitable for life.

That task would require a truly massive rocket.

“We are trying to build something that is capable of creating a permanent base on the moon and a city on Mars — that’s why it is so large,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said last year.

Whether that goal is feasible — economically, technologically and politically — remains to be seen. But Musk and SpaceX have garnered a diehard fanbase rallied around the idea.

Other items on the agenda for Starship:

Send paying customers (or space tourists) on trips to deep space. At least one customer — billionaire Jared Isaacman, who is spearheading a development program alongside SpaceX — has already signed up.

Launch batches of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites, which beam internet service across the globe.

Potentially launch new scientific instruments, such as space-based telescopes.