Los Angeles, 13 Oct (Xinhua) -- The United States SpaceX Corporation's new-generation heavy-lift carrier rocket "Starship" carried out its fifth test flight on 13 October. The rocket booster is "clamped" by a robotic arm called "chopsticks" on the launch tower when it lands, and it is the first time that it can be captured and recovered in mid-air. The spacecraft splashed down in the India Ocean.
SpaceX's live broadcast footage shows that at 7:25 Central Time (20:25 Beijing time) on the 13th of United States, the "Starship" was launched from its base in Boca Chica, Texas, United States, and soon after, the rocket's first-stage booster and second-stage spacecraft successfully separated. About 7 minutes after launch, the booster returned to the launch site and was successfully captured by the tower's robotic arm.
About 65 minutes after launch, the spacecraft splashed down in the India Ocean. Footage from the live stream showed smoke and fire at the site of the splash, but as of press time, no details about the ship were available.
The Starship rocket has a total length of about 120 meters and a diameter of about 9 meters, and consists of two parts, the first stage is a "Super Heavy" booster with a length of about 70 meters, and the second stage is a "Starship" spacecraft, both stages of which can be reused. The rocket is designed to carry people and cargo into Earth's orbit, the moon and even Mars.
This was the fifth test flight of the "Starship". During the fourth test flight in June this year, the first and second stages of the rocket successfully separated and fell into the Gulf of Mexico and the India Ocean respectively as planned. SpaceX's use of robotic arms to capture boosters will help them be recovered and reused more quickly, increasing the frequency of Starship launches.
Editor/Zhao Hongxin