SpaceX’s Starship rocket survived a fiery, hypersonic return from space and achieved a breakthrough landing demonstration in the Indian Ocean on Thursday, completing a full test mission around the globe on the rocket’s fourth try.
Starship’s controlled plunge into the Indian Ocean just 65 minutes after launching from Texas capped the latest advance in the company’s test-to-failure rocket development campaign, a multibillion-dollar effort by Elon Musk’s space company to build a reusable satellite launcher and moon lander.
The three previous test missions ended with Starship blowing up or disintegrating.
On Thursday, Starship appeared to have overcome those past technical challenges. Beginning at about 45 minutes into flight, onboard cameras showed a field of superhot plasma forming around Starship’s exterior – marking with hues of orange, red, bluish purple, and green the start of the spaceship’s blazing hot plunge through Earth’s atmosphere.
As Starship’s descent was slowed by violent atmospheric friction, bits of metal and its hexagonal heat-shield tiles began flying off and parts of the rocket’s steering flaps were stripped to a skeleton, though they remained functional.
Starship reignited an engine to flip itself upright in mid-descent, as it would for a landing on ground or on the moon, then splashed into the Indian Ocean, as confirmed by waves of water seen through an onboard camera’s broken, debris-covered lens.
SpaceX星舰火箭在太空高超音速炽热返回中幸存，并于周四在印度洋实现了突破性的着陆演示，完成了该火箭第四次尝试全面环球测试任务。 星舰从德克萨斯州发射后仅 65 分钟就受控坠入印度洋，这标志着该公司“失败测试”火箭开发的最新进展。这是埃隆·马斯克航天公司耗资数十亿美元的项目，旨在建造可重复使用的卫星发射器和月球着陆器。 之前的三次测试任务均以星舰爆炸或解体而告终。 周四，星舰似乎已经克服了过去的技术挑战。从飞行大约 45 分钟开始，机载摄像机显示，星际飞船外部周围形成了超热等离子体场，炽热的星舰开始冲入地球大气层，伴随橙色、红色、蓝紫色和绿色色调。 当星舰下降速度因剧烈的大气摩擦而减慢时，金属碎片及其六角形隔热片开始飞散，火箭部分转向襟翼被剥离成骨架，但它们仍然具有控制功能。 星舰在下降过程中重新点燃发动机，使其自身翻转直立，就像在地面或月球上着陆一样，然后坠入印度洋，通过机载相机布满碎片的破损镜头看到的水波证实了这一点。
