SpaceX will have to wait until its next test flight of Starship to recover all parts of the giant rocket in a single mission.
The company had hoped to execute a milestone “double-catch” maneuver during the flight that launched on Friday from South Texas. That will be a key step toward SpaceX’s goal of developing a fully reusable rocket.
Until recent years, rockets have generally been expensive, single-use throwaways. If all of Starship, which is the largest rocket ever built, can be repeatedly flown, it would revolutionize the space industry, enabling launches of bigger, heavier satellites and other cargo at lower costs.
In addition, NASA is counting on a version of Starship to serve as a lunar lander for its Artemis program. The catches are not needed for NASA’s Artemis III mission next year, but any failures would make it even more unlikely that NASA could meet its goal of landing astronauts on the moon in 2028.
When is the launch, and how can I watch it?
Starship launched on schedule at 5:47 p.m. Eastern time from its Starbase site outside Brownsville, Texas, into a clear azure sky, even as the Federal Aviation Administration issued a nationwide ground stop for air travel.
Source: www.nytimes.com
