SpaceX Starship: success in space, trouble on return

INDIAN OCEAN: SpaceX’s Starship rocket completed its first-ever orbit but encountered difficulties upon reentry on Thursday, with the mission control losing contact with the rock over the Indian Ocean.

SpaceX’s latest mission saw its Starship rocket become the private spacecraft manufacturer’s first ever rocket to successfully go into orbit.

The Starship rocket took off from Boca Chica, Texas, on March 14. With a height of 120 meters, the rocket quickly ascended into the Earth’s stratosphere with a thrust of approximately 7.5 million kilograms. Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket ever constructed.

This launch marked Starship’s third trial flight and its first orbit around the planet. However, during reentry into Earth’s atmosphere over the Indian Ocean, contact with mission control was lost.

Read more: SpaceX launches its eighth long-duration crew to orbit for NASA

SpaceX later confirmed the news that Starship likely encountered complications during reentry. Dan Huot, SpaceX’s communications manager, announced that the ship’s intended “splash down” would not occur as planned.

Despite this setback, SpaceX’s founder Elon Musk said he was proud of the recent achievement and the progress made by his team. The successful orbit showed the private space company’s capabilities and the rocket’s potential for future missions.

During its flight, Starship underwent important tests, such as restarting its engines in space and operating its payload door. These tests were crucial to understand how well the rocket performed and whether it worked as expected.

SpaceX intended to use Starship for transporting space-bound human crew, spacecraft, satellites, and other cargo to locations within the solar system in the future. United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) also has plans to utilise Starship’s Human Landing System for upcoming missions to the moon’s surface.

The rocket was designed with cost-efficient manufacturing in mind. Starship was manufactured with stainless steel construction and utilised methane fuel. Its reusability and huge payload capacity of up to 275 tonnes is important in furthering future space exploration.