The largest rocket system ever built in the history of space is set to begin its fifth test flight. The spaceship “Starship” is expected to take off without crew on Sunday between 2pm and 2:30pm (CEST) from the spaceport of Billionaire Elon Musk’s private space company SpaceX in the US state of Texas. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) gave permission to take off on Saturday.
Previous experiments were not entirely successful. During the first launch in April 2023, the entire rocket system exploded after only a few minutes. During a second test in November 2023, the two rocket stages separated and the upper one continued to fly, but both exploded separately soon after. During the third test in March, the “Starship” reached space for the first time, but they were not able to complete the flight as planned. During the fourth test flight in June, the “Starship” attempted a controlled landing for the first time, but there were also problems here. The aim of the retest is to collect more data.
The “Starship” aims to enable manned missions to the Moon and Mars. The system is designed so that the spacecraft and rocket can be reused after returning to Earth. The approximately 120 meter long system will be able to carry more than 100 tons of cargo in the future. NASA wants to take astronauts to the moon with the “Starship”. SpaceX hopes to one day take the system to Mars.
