Elon Musk confirms that SpaceX will take another step forward very soon

SpaceX plans to take its Starship spacecraft one step further very soon, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk confirmed on Tuesday.

On Sunday, SpaceX accomplished the unprecedented maneuver of grabbing the Starship’s first stage booster, known as Super Heavy, and returning it to the launch tower, known as Mechazilla.

SpaceX tops off fifth Starship test flight with highly successful booster catch

In the past four Starship test launches, SpaceX had not attempted to catch the first stage, so this was truly unprecedented, considering it was the first attempt. He passed the test successfully.

The catch means SpaceX will be able to return the boosters for more than one use, making them recyclable for future launches and potentially enabling a simpler approach to future liftoffs.

Elon Musk reveals when SpaceX Starship will go to Mars for the first time

However, there are a lot of things SpaceX wants to do before it begins its test flights to Mars in 2026. One of them is to take the fishing maneuver one step further.

Musk wants to try to catch up with both the rocket and the upper stage, or the spacecraft itself, sometime next year, as he confirmed in a post on X:

Hopefully we can catch the ship too early next year

– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 15, 2024

The move would be completely unprecedented, especially if she can pull off the feat on her first attempt, as happened with the attempt last weekend.

This will be another factor in moving plans to eventually transport humans to Mars. The spacecraft is designed to be reusable, and the 400-foot rocket that will pick it up will be a marvel of modern engineering and space travel.

The last two Starship test launches, IFT-4 and IFT-5, were complete successes. Everything the company set out to achieve with the launches happened without any real caveats.

The objectives of the latest launch were to catch up with the first stage and land the upper stage of the spacecraft successfully and safely in the Indian Ocean. Both things happened without incident.

SpaceX is already gearing up for IFT-6, with the company already firing up a successful stationary engine aboard Flight 6 Starship. This happened on September 19th.

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Elon Musk confirms that SpaceX will take another step forward very soon