The world’s largest and most powerful rocket was launched from Texas on Thursday afternoon. SpaceX director Elon Musk also followed the rocket’s flight.
Three previous test flights of SpaceX’s Starship rocket have ended in the destruction of the rocket. This time, the giant rocket was successfully brought back to the surface of Tellus, in the Indian Ocean, intact.
“Softly,” wrote the company director Elon Musk message service in X.
The rocket flew for more than an hour at a maximum altitude of almost 211 kilometers. The successful fourth test flight is an important milestone in Musk’s attempt to conquer Mars. Musk’s idea is to develop a rocket that can be reused to fly passengers to Mars and back.
First, however, the plan is to take astronauts to the Moon again, at the end of this decade. And not just astronauts, because there are also genuine moon trips. SpaceX has already announced that it is selling travel tickets for a trip around the moon.
Sources: AP, AFP, Reuters