( The Hill ) – The SpaceX Starship, the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket, completed its most successful test flight yet on Thursday, returning to Earth without exploding. Thursday’s test flight was Starship’s fourth, and it marked a significant step toward reaching SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s eventual goal of building a reusable rocket that could one day bring people to Mars. The three previous test flights — one in March and two last year — all saw the rocket explode, although the most recent March flight came close to avoiding an explosion.
The other two exploded shortly after blasting off. Watch our full special D-Day: ‘The Greatest Victory’ Musk said ahead of the latest test flight that his “primary goal is getting through max re-entry heating.” SpaceX’s mega rocket Starship lifts off in a heavy haze for a test flight from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, June 6, 2024.
(AP Photo/Eric Gay) On Thursday, live footage of the Starship flight showed some parts of the rocket breaking away as it reached extremely high temperatures upon reentry to Earth. Still, the spacecraft managed to splash down in the Indian Ocean in a controlled fashion and remained sufficiently intact to be able to transmit data before landing. Prior to its descent, the spacecraft had reached an altitude of nearly 130 miles, traveling at more than 16,000 miles per hour.
The test flight was applauded by SpaceX employees, as well as by those at NASA. “Despite loss of many tiles and a.
