The News
Elon Musk’s SpaceX pushed the boundaries of engineering a little further Sunday with the fifth test flight of its megarocket, Starship.
In an unprecedented maneuver, the company managed to “catch” the rocket’s huge booster stage as it came back down to land using what are essentially giant metal chopsticks attached to the launch tower, a structure SpaceX calls Mechazilla.
Designed to go to Mars, the Starship rocket itself pulled off a successful orbital test launch, splashing down in the Indian Ocean after taking off from Texas.
It was a highly anticipated moment for the company: SpaceX maintains that the US Federal Aviation Administration is delaying progress, taking longer than expected to get through the paperwork required to blast a giant prototype rocket into space — claims the FAA has pushed back on, citing safety as its priority.
SIGNALS
Maneuver could be a ‘huge leap’ for space exploration
The maneuver could be a “huge leap” for space exploration, the BBC noted, demonstrating that the Starship rocket can touch down on land — it had previously only landed at sea. It marks a step forward in SpaceX’s mission to reutilize rockets, making space travel cheaper, more sustainable, and quicker. If the company succeeds, the moon could become a regular destination for scientific research. The vision is “bold,” CNN noted, and SpaceX is still ironing out the details of how exactly it would work. Musk acknowledged in July that the goal for this flight sounded “kind of insane,” but now that the first landing has worked, SpaceX may attempt even more ambitious operations, like refueling Starship while it’s stationed in orbit to prepare it to travel toward the moon.
Conflict between Musk and federal agencies turns political
The conflict between Musk and federal agencies like the FAA has long been simmering, but has taken on new political significance with the billionaire’s support of Republican nominee and former US President Donald Trump. Trump complimented SpaceX for the successful Starship maneuver on Sunday at a rally, and said Musk is a “friend” who is campaigning for him in Pennsylvania. Musk joined Trump on stage at a recent rally in the state, and Trump vowed SpaceX’s Starship would land on Mars by the end of his presidency should he win a second term. NASA, which has awarded SpaceX about $4 billion in contracts to develop Starship for its missions, currently has a timeline for such a venture in the 2030s at the earliest.
Space race in focus as global summit nears
SpaceX’s maneuver comes as space agencies from around the world prepare to gather in Milan for an annual summit. The focus of the convening will likely be the geopolitical tension that is fueling a renewed global space race, Reuters noted. The US and China, in particular, are competing to be the first to land humans back on the moon over 50 years after the last Apollo mission in 1972, and are relying increasingly on international alliances and private companies (like SpaceX in the US) to work toward that goal. “This is the most exciting time in space since the Apollo era in the 1960s,” said the president of the International Astronautical Federation, the non-profit behind the gathering in Milan.