Starship launch vehicle lands on the launch pad for the first time”/>
Company Elon Musk SpaceX successfully launched the world’s largest Super Heavy rocket into space with the Starship spacecraft for the fifth time. At the same time, for the first time in the history of space exploration, the company was able to return the launch vehicle to the launch pad and capture it.
As Day.Az reports with reference to the Russian newspaper, the Starship was launched from the SpaceX-owned launch pad in Boca Chica in southeast Texas exactly on schedule. According to the flight plan, the spacecraft should reach low-Earth orbit and then splash down in the Indian Ocean.
However, the designers’ main attention was focused on testing the first stage of the Super Heavy rocket, since the main task was to carry out a controlled landing of the reusable carrier at the launch site and capture it.
Musk’s reusable rocket system consists of the Starship spacecraft and the Super Heavy launch vehicle. Its total height is 121 meters, and its carrying capacity is 100-150 tons. The height of the spacecraft reaches 50 meters, and the rocket itself – up to 70. This system is currently the largest in the world.
Starship was designed by SpaceX to carry out manned flights to the Moon and Mars, as well as to other space objects beyond Earth orbit.