Josh Dinner is Space.com's Content Manager. He is a writer and photographer with a passion for science and space exploration, and has been working the space beat since 2016.
SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas — SpaceX's Starship megarocket, the world's largest and most powerful rocket, reached orbital speed for the first time Thursday in a historic third test flight from South Texas.fans gathered along the southern shores of South Padre Island and surrounding areas to witness the third test flight of the biggest rocket ever built. About 5 miles south of the crowds, SpaceX's massivevehicle lifted off this morning at 9:25 a.m.
High in the sky, Starship's two stages separated about 2 minutes 45 seconds after liftoff, sending the 165-foot-tall upper-stage spacecraft onward to space while Super Heavy began preparations for a boostback burn to redirect its trajectory. That post-staging burn reversed Super Heavy's velocity, and was intended to be followed minutes later by a landing burn above the Gulf of Mexico.
Josh Dinner is Space.com's Content Manager. He is a writer and photographer with a passion for science and space exploration, and has been working the space beat since 2016. Josh has covered the evolution of NASA's commercial spaceflight partnerships, from early Dragon and Cygnus cargo missions to the ongoing development and launches of crewed missions from the Space Coast, as well as NASA science missions and more.
But, retrieving it may be the hardest part. Without being pretty comfortable about the final trajectory, it might not be safe to have the terminal location occur on land or even in shallow areas of the ocean, which are still near habitation. This thinking is similar to most non-business, sociological but illogical models. Executive J makes too much, and therefore his company is bad for their customers or corporation B has big profits, and therefore they are unfair to consumers. Give no mind to the fact that B is providing the best product at the best price.
I would be more than shocked if Starship ever got close to a moon landing. What lands on the moon will look nothing like Starship. If they wanted to build a Lunar lander they would of made a 3rd stage for Starship and a small grasshopper style lander. Of course that would delay their Mars plans for at least a decade.
Further gain is made by producing usable technology for a fraction of what has been historically spent. Value for dollars spent is “something” in return. If Boeing were building a rocket instead of SpaceX, it would not be out of the engineers' hands yet. Forget about having 3 test flights.
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