The launch of SpaceX’s mammoth Starship rocket on Thursday met a set of ambitious goals set by Elon Musk, the company’s chief executive, ahead of the test flight on Wednesday.
Taking off from the SpaceX launch site at 7:50 a.m. in South Texas, near Brownsville, the Starship thundered across the sky.
After falling away from the upper stage, the booster was able to land gently in the Gulf of Mexico, while the second stage spacecraft traveled halfway around the world, survived the extreme temperatures of atmospheric re-entry, and also made a controlled descent into the Indian Ocean.
The flight was not flawless and there are still difficult technical obstacles. The successes, which surpassed those achieved during the previous test flight in March, offered optimism that Mr Musk can fulfill his vision of a rocket that is the biggest and most powerful ever and yet fully reusable.
The result also helps validate the company’s approach to engineering, with steady progress since the first test launch in April last year, when the rocket had to be deliberately destroyed when it veered off course.
“They are showing the ability to make progress faster than we thought they could,” said Daniel L. Dumbacher, executive director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, a professional engineering society. “They have a team that knows what they are doing, has the ability to be willing to learn, and just as importantly, is not bound by prior cases.”
If Starship can fly again and again, more like an airplane than a conventional rocket, it could transform a global space launch industry already dominated by SpaceX.
Today’s flight is also likely encouraging for NASA officials. They are counting on SpaceX to provide a version of the Starship to carry astronauts to the lunar surface during NASA’s Artemis III mission, currently scheduled for late 2026.
Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator, offered his congratulations on X, the social networking site owned by Mr. Musk.
“We’re one step closer to humanity’s return to the Moon via #Artemis — then looking to Mars,” he wrote.
After reaching a peak altitude of about 130 miles, the Starship upper stage vehicle fell back to Earth as planned and re-entered the atmosphere. Cameras on the spacecraft captured a vibrating glow of gases heating up beneath it.
At an altitude of about 30 miles, pieces began to peel off one of the rudder vanes near the top of the spacecraft, with the vane still operating. The camera’s view was then obstructed when debris broke the lens.
“The question is how much of the ship is left,” said Kate Tice, one of the hosts of the SpaceX show.
Real-time data continued to be transmitted back, via SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites, to the company’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California, until the altitude was reported at 0 — the surface of the Indian Ocean.
A final engine burn brought the Starship into a vertical position just before landing.
“From South Texas to the other side of the Earth, Starship is on water,” said Dan Huot, one of SpaceX’s other show hosts. “What a day.”
A crowd of SpaceX workers seen outside mission control in California cheered wildly, arms raised in celebration.
“Despite the loss of several tiles and a damaged fin, the Starship made it to a smooth landing in the ocean!” Mr. Musk wrote to X.
The damaged fin and loss of heat resistant tiles indicate significant upgrades still needed. Otherwise, the Starship would, like the space shuttles, require extensive refurbishment after each flight.
“But all of this can be fixed,” Mr. Dumbacher said. “It’s a step in the right direction and there are more steps to be taken.”
Earlier in the flight, the first stage of the rocket, the giant Super Heavy booster was also able to perform maneuvers that in the future would take it back to the launch site. For this flight, he simulated such a landing by disembarking in the Gulf of Mexico. All three previous attempts at this feat had ended in explosions.
With the Starship vehicle stacked atop the Super Heavy booster, the rocket is the tallest ever built — 397 feet, or about 90 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty, including the pedestal.
The Super Heavy has 33 of SpaceX’s powerful Raptor engines protruding from its underside.
As these engines lift the Starship off the launch pad, they generate up to 16 million pounds of thrust at full throttle. On this flight, one of the engines failed to ignite, but this did not stop him from continuing his journey into space.
A few weeks ago, after a successful test launch, Mr. Musk wrote to X that for this flight, “Primary goal is to pass maximum re-entry heating.”
In other words, he didn’t want the vehicle to burn. And on Thursday, he didn’t.
Starship launches have drawn spectators to SpaceX’s launch site near the southern tip of Texas.
On Thursday, they sat on lounge chairs or on top of trucks and campers listening to the SpaceX broadcast. as the countdown continued.
“It’s crazy what they’re doing here,” said Chris Thomassen, who had traveled from the Netherlands to watch the launch, camped for three days on a beach near the launch site, then moved to a spot just on the edge of safety. exclusion zone.
Robert Opel, 56, set up a tent outside the launch site four days before Thursday’s launch. He was so determined to see the launch up close that he had arranged to travel to the Rio Grande in Mexico, which is only a few miles from the launch site.
“It’s like all your birthdays rolled into one,” Mr. Opel said, adding that this was the fourth — of four — Starship test launches he had seen.
Eric Lipton contributed reporting from Boca Chica, Texas.
