NASA has added SpaceX's giant Starship rocket to a major commercial contract, putting the world's most powerful launch vehicle in contention for future missions — even though the shiny spacecraft keeps exploding in mid-air, and has yet to deliver a single payload into space.
On March 28, the American space agency announced that Starship was being added to the NASA Launch Services (NLS) II contract, which lists all the privately built spacecraft that can be considered for future missions. Starship is the 10th rocket to be added to the contract, which also includes SpaceX's Super Heavy and Falcon 9. Other listed rockets include United Launch Alliance's new Vulcan Centaur and Northrop Grumman's Pegasus XL, which has been used by NASA since the early 1990s.
