Finally, Starship Rocket Has Successfully Landed Safety

Starship Rocket Illustrations (SpaceX)

JAKARTA - For the first time, a prototype of the Starship rocket made by SpaceX has landed safely. After several accidents that caused the Starship rocket to explode when it landed.

The Starship SN15 prototype rocket launched at 6:24 p.m. local time at the SpaceX facility in Boca Chica, Texas, USA. The prototype rocket was successfully airborne and reached an altitude of nearly 10 km, before finally returning to the surface.

Nominal starship landing!

- Elon Musk (elonmusk) May 5, 2021

Cited from Reuters, the three Raptor machines pinned on the SN15 also managed to perform the belly-flop maneuver. Approaching the landing area, the engines were started again to maintain the vertical position of the rocket before landing.

"SpaceX landing nominal", wrote SpaceX CEO Elon Musk shortly after the successful SN15 landing, as quoted from The Verge. The nominal mention itself refers to a term in the space industry which means that everything went according to plan.

Previously, four prototypes of SpaceX rockets flying in the high-altitude test exploded during the landing process. SN8 and SN9 exploded during the landing process, SN10 exploded a few minutes after landing, and SN11 exploded moments before landing.

The Starship rocket is designed to deliver humans and 100 tonnes of cargo to the Moon and Mars. Moreover, NASA has awarded SpaceX's Artemis exploration program contract.

The plan for the Starship mission called 'dearMoon' is expected to be carried out in 2023. On that mission, SpaceX will send Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and several others on a week-long flight around the Moon.