- On Thursday SpaceX’s Starship—the spacecraft designed to ferry astronauts to the Moon and Mars—successfully survived a fiery reentry into Earth’s atmosphere as part of its fourth flight test.
- Passing this major milestone is crucial for keeping NASA’s lunar plans on track, as Starship is scheduled to put boots on the Moon as part of the Artemis III mission in September of 2026.
- SpaceX plans for at least six more test flights in 2024 as it continues improving Starship for its spacefaring future.
NASA has big ambitions for the human spaceflight, and none are bigger than its hopes to place humans on the Moon—and, eventually, Mars. To achieve those starry-eyed dreams, the agency will need a new generation of flame-spewing chariots that can carry its astronauts (and lots and lots of gear) to our celestial neighbors.
While the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) will play a pivotal role in this extraordinary feat, SpaceX’s reusable Starship and Super Heavy booster—the world’s most powerful launch system—will likely be the workhorse of humanity’s spacefaring future. And today, that workhorse successfully cleared a major hurdle toward the finish line of the Red Planet.
At 8:50 am EDT, the spacecraft took off from SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas “Starbase” flight facility. The spacecraft’s 65-minute flight successfully achieved orbital insertion, as well as a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean northwest of Australia. Although the starship experienced some damage upon reentry, this fourth test flight was deemed a success by the company’s CEO Elon Musk.
“Despite loss of many tiles and a damaged flap, Starship made it all the way to a soft landing in the ocean!” Elon Musk wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Congratulations SpaceX team on an epic achievement!!”
Starship’s fortunes in 2024 have fared better than they did last year, as the first two flight tests ended in explosions. The third test flight in March successfully achieved orbital insertion, but proceeded to break apart upon reentry. After making several software and hardware changes, SpaceX finally succeeded in building a Starship that survived reentry and pulled off a soft splashdown of the rocket’s first stage, known as Super Heavy.
Unlike humanity’s first race to the Moon, which was completely funded by the Cold War superpowers, the return to the lunar surface and the long-awaited journey to Mars will be a joint effort between space agencies and companies like SpaceX—NASA has already ordered a pair of Starships for future Moon-landing missions—and Boeing, whose Starliner delivered astronauts to the International Space Station for the first time yesterday. As Starship plays a central role in NASA’s plans for the spacefaring future, it’s likely no surprise that the agency’s administrator, Bill Nelson, also delivered his congratulations to the SpaceX team.
“Congratulations @SpaceX on Starship’s successful test flight this morning!” Nelson posted after the successful test flight. “We are another step closer to returning humanity to the Moon through #Artemis—then looking onward to Mars”
Although Starship’s first stop will be to the Moon, SpaceX designed the rocket from the ground up for its ultimate destination—the Red Planet. For example, the Raptor engines that power both Super Heavy and Starship burn liquid oxygen and liquid methane, a.k.a. fuel that can be sourced from Mars itself.
But the Moon still comes first. NASA hopes Starship will land astronauts on the lunar surface by September of 2026, the scheduled date of the Artemis III mission. Because Starship will need to undergo more tests before that pivotal mission—NASA stated that the spacecraft won’t fly astronauts until it has “met all of NASA’s requirements and high standards for crew safety”—SpaceX is moving forward with urgency, with Musk saying the company has plans for six more test flights in 2024.
With its first hurdle successfully cleared, SpaceX can now prepare for the hard work of actually putting boots on worlds beyond our own.
Darren lives in Portland, has a cat, and writes/edits about sci-fi and how our world works. You can find his previous stuff at Gizmodo and Paste if you look hard enough.
