The key moment came 38 minutes after Starship roared off the launch pad

That is when Starship reignited certainly one of its six Raptor engines for a short burn to make a slight adjustment to its flight path. The burn solely lasted just a few seconds, and the impulse was small—only a 48 mph (77 km/hour) change in velocity, or delta-V—nevertheless it demonstrated the ship can safely deorbit itself on future missions.

With this achievement, Starship will doubtless quickly be cleared to journey into orbit round Earth and deploy Starlink web satellites or conduct in-space refueling experiments, two of the near-term targets on SpaceX’s Starship improvement roadmap.

Launching Starlinks aboard Starship will enable SpaceX to increase the capability and attain of business shopper broadband community, which, in flip, supplies income for Musk to reinvest into Starship. Orbital refueling is an enabler for Starship voyages past low-Earth orbit, fulfilling SpaceX’s multibillion-dollar contract with NASA to offer a human-rated Moon lander for the company’s Artemis program. Likewise, transferring cryogenic propellants in orbit is a prerequisite for sending Starships to Mars, making actual Musk’s dream of making a settlement on the pink planet.

Till now, SpaceX has deliberately launched Starships to speeds simply shy of the blistering velocities wanted to take care of orbit. Engineers wished to check the Raptor’s capacity to reignite in house on the third Starship take a look at flight in March, however the ship misplaced management of its orientation, and SpaceX canceled the engine firing.

Earlier than going for a full orbital flight, officers wanted to substantiate Starship may steer itself again into the environment for reentry, guaranteeing it would not current any threat to the general public with an unguided descent over a populated space. After Tuesday, SpaceX can verify this off its to-do checklist.

“Congrats to SpaceX on Starship’s sixth take a look at flight,” NASA Administrator Invoice Nelson posted on X. “Thrilling to see the Raptor engine restart in house—main progress in the direction of orbital flight. Starship’s success is Artemis ‘success. Collectively, we’ll return humanity to the Moon & set our sights on Mars.”

Whereas it lacks the pizazz of a fiery launch or touchdown, the engine relight unlocks a brand new part of Starship improvement. SpaceX has now confirmed the rocket is able to reaching house with a good measure of reliability. Subsequent, engineers will fine-tune find out how to reliably recuperate the booster and the ship, and learn to use them.

Acid take a look at

SpaceX seems effectively on the best way to doing this. Whereas SpaceX did not catch the Tremendous Heavy booster with the launch tower’s mechanical arms Tuesday, engineers have proven they’ll do it. The problem of catching Starship itself again on the launch pad is extra daunting. The ship begins its reentry 1000’s of miles from Starbase, touring roughly 17,000 mph (27,000 km/hour), and should thread the hole between the tower’s catch arms inside a matter of inches.