March 14, 2024 – 6:16 pm
Photograph: Chandan Khanna/AFP
For the third time, almost the entire test has been completed using SpaceX's Starship rocket, which was launched from Texas. He writes Reuters. They stated that they had reached the rocket farther than ever before, meaning an altitude of 245 km.
Contact with the spacecraft was lost about an hour after launch as it reentered the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean, but by then it had managed to complete its intended objectives. Thursday's test was hailed as an important milestone, with NASA chief Bill Nelson congratulating it on a “successful test.”
During the first test flight last April, the largest and most powerful space rocket in the world exploded a few minutes after its launch. In November, eight minutes after launch, communication with the spacecraft was lost.
SpaceX hopes the 120-meter-long spacecraft will play a pioneering role in spaceflight. SpaceX, through its Artemis 3 space rocket program, will send people first to the Moon and then to Mars. The capacity of the spaceship, which can be used multiple times, is designed to accommodate one hundred people.
According to plans, the spacecraft will be able to deliver 150 tons of cargo into outer space. By comparison, SpaceX's Falcon rocket can deliver just over 22 tons of payload to low Earth orbit.
