Getty Images
Elon Musk wants his new rocket to revolutionise spaceflight. And that rocket, Starship, is now the largest and most powerful spacecraft ever built.
It’s also designed to be fully and rapidly reusable. His private company SpaceX, which is behind the creation, is hoping to develop a spaceship that can be used more like a plane than a traditional rocket system, being able to land, refuel and take off again a few hours after landing.
What happened on the latest launch?
Starship’s fifth test flight on 13 October was its most successful.
For the first time ever, SpaceX successfully manoeuvred the bottom part of the vehicle, the Super Heavy booster, back to the launch pad. Once there, it hovered before being captured mid-air by a pair of giant mechanical arms on the launch tower.
SpaceX wants its spacecraft to be rapidly reusable, and the quickest way to achieve that is to bring the rocket’s components back to where they started.
SpaceX wants eventually to catch the Ship – the top part of the vehicle – in the same way.
But that didn’t happen on the fifth test flight, instead it landed exactly as planned in the Indian Ocean.
Will Starship go to Mars?
None of Starship’s missions so far have been crewed, and there’s no plans to put people aboard for the next flight either.
But Musk and his company do have grand designs that the rocket system will one day take humanity to Mars.
A Mars trip isn’t on the horizon just yet. But the behemoth rocket already has some impressive specs, and dwarfs all of its predecessors.