SpaceX breaks Starship losing streak in 10th test
The Starship rocket's test flight was largely successful, deploying eight dummy satellites during its hour in space
What happened
SpaceX Tuesday evening conducted a largely successful 10th test flight of its mammoth Starship rocket, with both the upper stage and rocket booster making it back to Earth intact and simulating soft vertical landings in the ocean before exploding, as anticipated. In a first for Starship, the uncrewed spacecraft deployed eight dummy satellites during its hour in space.
Who said what
The "successful demo came after a year of mishaps" for Elon Musk's massive rocket, The Associated Press said. After an impressive fifth launch last year, SpaceX "experienced dramatic failures in four recent tests," The Washington Post said.
Tuesday's "nearly flawless" mission was a "likely relief to both SpaceX and NASA," which is "counting on Starship as the lander to put its astronauts on the moon in the coming years," The New York Times said. Musk also has "much riding on the rocket," envisioning it as a reusable vehicle to "carry satellites, scientific devices and, eventually, astronauts," including to Mars, The Wall Street Journal said.
What next?
SpaceX "appeared to achieve all of their test objectives," but they are still probably "six months behind where they wanted to be" due to this year's earlier failures, Todd Harrison from the American Enterprise Institute told the Times. "If they can get another test flight within six weeks or so, they can start to catch up."
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