SpaceX Starship has been successfully launched on its first flight. This milestone comes barely 24 hours after the Crew Dragon spacecraft’s splashdown on Earth.
While Starship’s 150-metre flight is a relative “hop”, it is indeed groundbreaking. The test flight is hopefully the first step in SpaceX’s ultimate goal of carrying up to 100 people on cruises to Mars aboard the Starship. It is sure interesting to see the spacecraft (actually a small prototype) warm itself up for the 34 million mile trip it is destined for.
The Starship’s test flight was intended to try out the structural strength of the Craft’s stainless steel tanks, its guidance system as well as several other basic functions. The test saw Starship go approximately 500 feet in the air before landing smoothly on a nearby pad. Surely, future attempts would see SpaceX trying out higher altitudes.
The low-altitude test is the first time in several attempts that the ship flew. The fact that the ship not only flew but survived the trial unscathed is a further cause of optimism. Before Tuesday, SpaceX’s prior prototypes of the Starship did not even make it to flight testing phase.
