SpaceX: Starship’s Fifth Launch with Booster Recovery

The launch vehicle returned to the base after undocking from the ship at an altitude of 70 km

The fifth launch of Starship, the spacecraft that SpaceX plans to use for the next lunar and Martian missions, was a success. For the first time, the first stage maxi rocket returned to the launch pad located in Boca Chica, Texas. An hour after launch, Starship landed in the Indian Ocean.

The launch vehicle called Super Heavy, equipped with 33 engines powered by liquid oxygen and liquid methane, separated from the second stage at an altitude of 70 kilometers above sea level, where it began its return to Earth. Restarting the engines helped slow the 71-meter-long carrier’s descent, bringing it precisely into the mechanical arms of the launch base.

The fourth Starship mission ended with a vertical landing of the launch vehicle at sea. This time, the mechanical arm system that essentially holds the rocket in place during the guided descent phase was tested.

The importance of rocket recovery is fundamental to reducing the cost of space missions in the medium to long term. Project Starship was designed by SpaceX to get people and goods into space. The first goal is to return humans to the Moon and then even to Mars, the latter being clearly unrealistic, at least in the short to medium term, but something Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, keeps talking about.