What's next for SpaceX's Starship after epic Flight 15 chopsticks catch?
SpaceX just made spaceflight history, catching the upper stage of its Starship megarocket when it returned to Earth. But Starship still has some pretty big boxes left to check.
Starship has achieved a historic first with its 15th test flight, but the journey to full operational capability still lies ahead. The megarocket successfully brought its upper stage, Starship, back to Earth via the tower's chopstick arms after a dramatic flight. This marked the first successful landing of a Starship upper stage, a feat that could revolutionize future space missions.
SpaceX's goal is to launch Starship up to 10,000 times per year by 2030, enabling the construction of massive constellations like Starlink and Starmind. However, there's still work to be done in terms of rapid reflight and refueling capabilities for deep-space missions. NASA has selected Starship for the Artemis program to land astronauts on the Moon by 2032, but the rocket will also need to master off-Earth refueling to make this possible.
SpaceX is making progress on the crew cabin for Starship, but more hurdles remain before the rocket can fulfill its full potential.
Written by urgent.news from Space.com's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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