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SpaceX successfully lands Starship SN15 spacecraft in flight test

SpaceX, the aerospace company of visionary Elon Musk, has just set a new milestone by successfully landing the Starship  SN15 spacecraft  prototype . This is a critical point where previous prototypes have failed during high altitude test flights. It seems that SpaceX has finally managed to overcome this great obstacle to interplanetary flight. 

The first successful landing 

Going into detail, the  Starship  SN15 took off from  SpaceX’s Starbase test site  near Boca Chica in South Texas on May 5 at 6PM (EST). The vehicle soared about 10 kilometers into the sky, performed a series of maneuvers, and descended again for a safe landing on its designated landing pad six minutes after takeoff.  

If you missed it,  Spacex  uploaded the historical moment to its social networks.

Starship  SN15 

The  Starship  SN15 is SpaceX’s largest spacecraft to date and the fruit of years of research and development, as well as trial and error. The 4 ships that preceded it ended up flying through the air in the wrong direction , exploding shortly after landing or before … so we could say that the fifth time is the charm. It should be noted that all have been unmanned flights.  

With that said, the flight of  Starship  SN15 was not without its hiccups. In fact, there was some fire near the base after landing, but thankfully it was nothing serious and it was extinguished shortly after. That aside, everything was silky smooth, which represents a great achievement not only for  Spacex , but also for the aerospace industry. 

The first successful landing

The Starship SN15 is designed to carry passengers and cargo to the Moon and Mars . As you might expect, the system is made up of two parts, a ship (the Starship) and a first-stage thruster called the Super Heavy, both designed to be reusable. On board are 3 new generation Raptor engines built by SpaceX, but the final version will feature 6 of them. 

 

The interesting thing does not end here, Musk revealed that, if the test program progresses well enough, SpaceX will fully put a Starship spacecraft into Earth  orbit before the end of the year.

The ultimate goal is to make interplanetary flights between Earth, the Moon, and Mars a reality. 

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