A semi-success for the sixth flight of SpaceX’s Starship, which landed in the Indian Ocean

Starship is currently the most massive rocket in service, with a height of 120 meters and a potential transfer capacity of 100 to 150 tonnes into low orbit, or 5 to 7 times more than Ariane 6. It is powered by a Super booster. Heavy, its first stage, itself equipped with 33 Raptor engines.

The rocket’s takeoff went smoothly to space. Despite modifications to its dedicated calculation software, SpaceX quickly had to give up on landing the Super Heavy booster on its launch pad. The latter made a controlled re-entry into the atmosphere before landing at low speed in the Gulf of Mexico. The machine nevertheless disintegrated in the water.

Several advances validated

The mission is not a failure, however, and several advances should be noted, assures SpaceX. The rocket ship successfully detached from the booster once in space. Equipped with six Raptor engines, it should be able to use them to orbit the Earth. For the first time, one of the ship’s engines was restarted in space without incident, paving the way for maneuver for future flights.

Another success for SpaceX: the new version of Starship’s heat shield, tested for the first time, seems to have kept its promises. This new design made it possible to remove more than 2000 tiles to save weight on the machine. Finally, the Starship vessel successfully made a precision landing in the Indian Ocean. The machine descended at a speed of 26,000 km/h before almost stopping above the water. The scene was first filmed by SpaceX.

This sixth test flight, which took place under the eyes of Donald Trump, was praised by NASA. “It’s exciting to see the Raptor engine restart in space, it’s major progress towards orbital flight,” commented Bill Nelson, the administrator of the American space agency. The success of Starship is the success of Artemis. Together we will return humanity to the Moon and set our sights on Mars.”