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There’s a lot that can be said about Elon Musk, but if there’s one thing for sure, he’s ambitious to say the least.
So it’s no surprise that SpaceX has always been a highly ambitious initiative, with the ultimate goals of the Starship megarocket not for the faint of heart.
With SpaceX aiming to return humans to the Moon, reduce the financial and environmental costs of space travel, and colonize Mars, making humans a multi-planetary species, opponents have long argued that the company has bitten off more than they can chew.
But with the successful launch of the 10th SpaceX Starship recently, there’s no denying that Musk and his company are stepping ever-closer to their lofty goals.
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Delays and failed tests have caused some people to lose faith in the Starship initiative, but with SpaceX’s dragon capsules regularly providing deliveries to the International Space Station and beyond, the company is already operating a successful, commercial space freight (and sometimes human) delivery service.
Next to the megarocket though, and the Starship – designed as a reusable Mars rocket – underwent a test of hundreds of new upgrades at the 10th launch.
Despite weather and infrastructure-related delays, the Starship launched successfully, with a demonstration of the new satellite deployment system working effectively.
Though the SpaceX catching arm – key to the sustainability and reusability goals – is a real crowd-pleaser, it was not in operation during this launch, with the Starship achieving splashdown in the Indian Ocean by design, to demonstrate alternative, emergency landing scenarios.
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The success of this launch was important, given the explosive results of previous tests (both on the ground and in space and the upper atmosphere).
That’s partly because of the high levels of testing that SpaceX carry out, with a trial-and-error approach that contrasts other brands’ attempts at perfection before prototypes are flown.
Though there are still many stumbling blocks that the Starship will have to encounter before it becomes what it was designed to be – namely, a commercial vessel through which our species can begin to colonize Mars – the effective new heat shield, along with other technical developments surely mean that Musk’s dream is closer to reality.
Finding willing passengers though, might be more of an issue.
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