NASA and SpaceX are celebrating today, as SpaceX successfully launched its Starship into outer space in another step in NASA’s plan to put humans back on the Moon and eventually to Mars. The ship broke up during re-entry and crashed into the Indian Ocean, and the flight plan was not a total success.
This was the third Starship test flight; a previous test of ship riding the biggest rocket ever created ended quite differently, as it began to spin and later exploded not long after launching.
NASA is doling out money to SpaceX and other private companies to work on technology to get humans to the Moon as part of the Artemis program. This latest Starship test launch, which had no humans on board, is the latest push toward that goal in the testing and preparation process.
According to CBS News, the flight plan for this latest Starship test was to launch the craft into sub-orbital space and a high-speed re-entry, with the Super Heavy rocket landing in the Gulf of Mexico and the Starship in the Indian Ocean.
The ultimate aim is to have both the rocket and the ship remain re-usable for additional flights, but that was not the case with this test. It was always the plan for both the rocket and the ship to break up on re-entry. However, both pieces failed in their attempts to land in the ocean at slower speeds as part of a “rocket-powered descent” that would soften the blow upon landing.
In any event, NASA administrator Bill Nelson congratulated SpaceX on the achievement, saying, “Together, we are making great strides through Artemis to return humanity to the Moon–then look onward to Mars.”
Earlier this year, NASA applauded another achievement when Intuitive Machines–backed by funding from NASA–successfully landed a craft on the Moon for the first time in 50+ years of American space travel.
A different private American company, Astrobotic, launched its own lunar lander headed to the Moon in January. However, things went wrong. The craft, which was carrying some of JFK and George Washington’s hair, and the ashes of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, did not make it.
It’s proven difficult to get back to the Moon for the US and other countries. In 2023, Japan’s space agency got its lunar lander within 33 feet of the Moon before it lost communication with the craft, with the assumption being that it crashed.
NASA provided millions in funding to private companies like Intuitive Machines and Astrobotic to help advance systems in delivering commercial cargo to the Moon. Eventually, NASA wants to build a Moon base and find new ways to stimulate the economy on the Moon.
Only four countries have ever landed on the Moon–the US, Russia, India, and China. No human, except for Val Kilmer, has been to Mars.
