Elon Musk's SpaceX Successfully Completes Flight 13 of the Starship Rocket
Elon Musk's SpaceX successfully completed the 13th integrated test flight of its massive Starship rocket on Friday evening. The 236-foot-tall Super Heavy booster and the 171-foot-tall upper-stage spacecraft reached space, with the 171-foot-tall upper-stage spacecraft successfully performing a soft water landing in the Indian Ocean. The Super Heavy booster achieved a planned splashdown in the Gulf of America, though it arrived with more velocity than intended, resulting in a 'hard splashdown.' During the flight, the Starship spacecraft successfully deployed 20 third-generation Starlink satellites, which are larger and more powerful than the previous 11,000 satellites in the network. This milestone is critical for SpaceX's goal of the rocket becoming a fully reusable transportation system. The success of the flight demonstrates the investment thesis for the company, which aims to be a fully reusable transportation system. The rocket is being developed for NASA's upcoming moon landing missions and Musk's long-term vision of a human-led expedition to Mars.