SpaceX Starship First Stage Returns To Launch Pad In Milestone

SpaceX completes fifth test flight of Starship rocket launch system, with first-stage booster successfully returning to launch tower

SpaceX has completed the fifth test launch of its Starship rocket launch system, making progress toward a fully reusable system with the return of the more than 20-storey tall first-stage booster to the launch pad, where it was caught by arms attached to the launch tower.

The “Super Heavy” first-stage booster, at 232 feet tall, returned to the launch tower at SpaceX’s facility near Brownsville, Texas seven minutes after the Sunday launch.

The successful test is a major milestone for Starship, which is intended to provide rapidly reusable rockets for carrying cargo and passengers into orbit and beyond.

SpaceX has a multibillion-dollar contract with NASA to use Starship as a crewed lunar lander carrying astronauts to the Moon under NASA’s Artemis programme.

Reusable system

“As we prepare to go back to the Moon under Artemis, continued testing will prepare us for the bold missions that lie ahead,” said NASA administrator Bill Nelson in a post on social media.

Starship itself, measuring 165 feet tall, continued into space and travelled halfway around the Earth before splashing down as intended in the Indian Ocean.

SpaceX has said it expects to fly hundreds of missions with Starship before using it to carry humans.

The Super Heavy rocket uses 33 Raptor engines that produce 16.7 million pounds of thrust, nearly double the 8.8 million of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) super-heavy launch vehicle, which carried out its first mission in 2022.

The Starship portion of the rocket contains an additional six Raptor engines, three for use in Earth’s atmosphere and another three for use in space.

Regulatory row

The company carried out previous test launches of the Starship in April and November of last year and March and June 2024.

The firm intended to stage the most recent launch before October, but was delayed as it waited for a permit from the Federal Aviation Administration, which it criticised for carrying out “superfluous environmental analysis”.

The FAA previously said it did not expect to issue a licence before November, but it along with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Commerce Department’s National Marine Fisheries Service carried out assessments more quickly than planned.

Last month the FAA fined SpaceX more than $633,000 (£485,000) for failing to follow licence conditions during two previous launches, while the Environmental Protection Agency fined it more than $150,000 for water discharges that violated regulations.

The company rejected the allegations and threatened to sue the FAA, while alleging in a letter to Congress that the agency was failing to “keep pace with the commercial spaceflight industry”.