SpaceX's spacecraft on Saturday returned from its longest flight in orbit yet to the Texas launch tower it was launched from a day prior, demonstrating the first key recovery of the rocket system's centerpiece vessel in the company's decade-long effort to develop a fully reusable rocket.The towering two-stage rocket's Super Heavy booster - the rocket's bottom half - carried Starship to space on Friday, lifting off from SpaceX's Starbase, Texas, facilities. That booster had failed to make a similar return to the launch pad some 10 minutes after liftoff, nixing SpaceX's plan to recover both parts of the rocket for the first time.But the Starship upper stage's successful return after orbiting Earth 14 times for over 22 hours marked a key engineering milestone in the whirlwind, multibillion-dollar development of Starship, which billionaire Elon Musk sees as the future workhorse for SpaceX's satellite business and ambitions to put humans on the Moon and eventually Mars.After deploying 26 Starlink satellites in orbit Friday night while cruising at some 161 miles (260km) in altitude, Starship on Saturday fired one of its engines to begin an atmospheric plunge. It faced blistering heat as its orbital speed of some 17,000 miles per hour slowed to a supersonic free-fall in the skies above SpaceX's Starbase facilities on the Gulf coast of south Texas.The spacecraft then reignited…
SpaceX achieves first Starship spacecraft tower catch following milestone 14-orbit Starlink mission
The spacecraft reignited three engines to flip itself into a vertical position and steer itself toward the launch tower, where two mechanical "chopstick" arms clasped onto the craft as it hovered.
In brief
SpaceX's spacecraft on Saturday returned from its longest flight in orbit yet to the Texas launch tower it was launched from a day prior, demonstrating the first key recovery of the rocket system's centerpiece vessel in the company's decade-long effort to develop a fully reusable rocket.The towering two-stage rocket's Super Heavy booster - the rocket's bottom half - carried Starship to space on Friday, lifting off from SpaceX's Starbase, Texas, facilities. That booster had failed to make a similar return to the launch pad some 10 minutes after liftoff, nixing SpaceX's plan to recover both parts of the rocket for the first time.But the Starship upper stage's successful return after orbitin…
This is the opening of the story, shared with credit to The Jerusalem Post. The rest of the report — with every detail — continues on the publisher’s website.
Continue reading at The Jerusalem Post ↗