Elon Musk's Space X has carried out a
successful test flight of the world's
largest and most powerful rocket with
its giant Starship splashing down in the
Indian Ocean. Four previous launches of
this version of Starship ended in
failure. Georgina Ranard has more.
>> 3 2 1
>> The start of a nailbiting 60 minutes.
SpaceX's newest generation of rocket
blasted off from Texas on a test flight
with a lot riding on it. Cautious
optimism when all engines fired
>> and the rocket's booster fell to Earth
as planned.
>> All right, here we go.
>> Landing bird startup
>> before
Starship made it to nearly 200 km above.
>> Shut down the vacuum engines. But then
nerves when a part of the rocket
appeared to explode and a burned flap
swung back and forth.
>> And finally, celebrations as Starship
successfully landed in the Indian Ocean
as the sun rose.
>> But this is what it took to get here.
The first failure in January, but SpaceX
did pull off this spectacular move,
catching the rocket's booster. Another
failure in March which rained down
debris over the Caribbean and a third
failure in May.
>> We are in a little bit of a spin.
>> The rocket span out of control and
crashed into the ocean. Elon Musk, the
world's richest man who is bankrolling
SpaceX, will be breathing a sigh of
relief.
>> I think today was a really great day for
SpaceX um with a successful booster
landing. Okay, we've seen that before,
but we understand that various test
parameters were changed this time
around. So, they've learned um how to
make it more robust for the future. But
the real highlight of the day is the
success of the Starship spacecraft
itself, completely executing its full
mission profile for the first time.
>> At 120 m, Starship is the largest, most
powerful rocket built to date. Today it
coasted around our planet, but it's been
designed to go to the moon and one day
even Mars.
US space agency NASA plans to use
Starship to get humans to the moon in
2027 for its OTMUS program. Elon Musk
wants the craft certified for human
space travel as early as next year.
SpaceX's mantra is fail fast, learn
fast. But if he wants to put humans in
Starship, then Mr. Musk needed this
rocket to stop blowing up.
>> Starship has returned to Earth battered
and bruised. But this flight was a big
step forward towards proving that
Starship could one day safely transport
Americans to the moon. Georgina Rannard,
BBC News.