Washington [US], October 14: The unmanned Starship, the largest rocket system ever built in the history of space travel, successfully completed a fifth test flight on Sunday, Elon Musk's SpaceX said.
Live images showed the rocket system lifting off at dawn from the SpaceX spaceport in southern Texas.
About an hour later, the vehicle made a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean after reaching space and then re-entering the atmosphere.
But perhaps the biggest thrill for SpaceX mission controllers was seeing the 70-metre-tall rocket booster fly back to its launch site, with giant mechanical arms dubbed "chopsticks" catching the rocket as it returned to the pad in Texas.
On the video feed, wild cheers and whoops could be heard erupting in the control room.
"Big step towards making life multiplanetary was made today," Musk posted on his social media platform X.
The Starship - consisting of the approximately Super Heavy booster and the approximately 50-metre-long upper stage vehicle, also called Starship - was designed to enable manned missions to the moon and Mars.
The system has been developed in such a way for the spaceship and rocket to be reused after returning to Earth. Starship should be able to transport well over 100 tons of cargo in future.
The development of the craft has been marred by a number of mishaps.
During a first test last April, the entire missile system exploded after just a few minutes. During a second test in November, the two rocket stages separated and the upper stage continued to fly, but shortly afterwards both exploded separately.
In March, the rocket successfully blasted off into space in its third unmanned test flight but was then destroyed as it returned to Earth, while the fourth test, in June, saw the Starship make its first controlled landing, but issues remained.
The aim of Sunday's test was to attempt "the first ever return to launch site and catch of the Super Heavy booster," SpaceX said.
Source: Qatar Tribune