Continue reading the main story SpaceX Successfully Lands Prototype of Mars and Moon Rocket After Test Flight
After a series of high-altitude test flights that ended in explosions, the new vehicle set down in one piece on a Texas launchpad.
Video The SN15 Starship prototype touched down in one piece after a brief test flight over Texas on Wednesday. Several previous landings had ended in fiery explosions. CreditCredit...SpaceX, via Associated Press
By Kenneth Chang and Michael Roston
May 5, 2021
A prototype of a spacecraft that SpaceX hopes one day to send to the moon and Mars touched down in one piece on a landing pad in South Texas on Wednesday. It was the fifth high-altitude flight test of Starship, a vehicle that in several earlier test flights exploded either during or after landing.
“We are down, the Starship has landed,” said John Insprucker, a SpaceX engineer, during a live video stream of the SN15 launch .
Flames continued to emerge from the base of the rocket after it landed, a result of the fuel used by the rocket, Mr. Insprucker said. Shortly after SpaceX concluded its official video feed, Elon Musk, the founder of the private space company, wrote a tweet calling the landing a success in the jargon of rocket engineering: