If all went according to plan, SpaceX had their second full test of their newest space vehicle - Starship.
There are many reasons to be excited by Starship. Firstly, it is the biggest and most powerful rocket ever.
Starship is about nine metres taller than the Saturn V which carried astronauts to the moon in the '60s and '70s, and can carry nearly twice as much weight.
The Saturn V generated 3450 tons (9 million pounds) of thrust while Starship can generate nearly 7600 tons (16.9 million pounds) of thrust.
This means it can carry more people, equipment, and satellites into orbit.
Starship is comprised of two parts. The Starship refers to both the enter system and, specifically, the space vehicle that is the top part (where people will eventually go in). The bottom is the heavy booster - the main engine comprised of 33 separate engines.
It is also exciting as SpaceX plans to use this to get to the moon - taking both equipment and people.
SpaceX already has people selected to go around the moon on the first trip. Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa purchased all of the spots on the first flight in a project called dearMoon.
He selected eight others - artists and creators - who will be inspired by the views and incorporate it into their creative work.
NASA is also planning on using Starship for their Artemis 3 mission which will be the first to land people back on the moon. The astronauts will transfer down to the moon's surface from lunar orbit in Starship and use it to get back.
Eventually, it may also take people to Mars.
Like SpaceX's current Falcon 9 and Falcon 9 Heavy, the entire system is reusable. These rockets go up, send the satellite or humans into space, and come back down and land. This has been a huge step in progress.
With Starship, both the Starship space vehicle and heavy booster will be able to land and be reused. By reusing components, it ultimately brings down the cost, and for space, that is the name of the game.
And this is the most exciting aspect of Starship.
The old US Space Shuttle was designed and envisioned to be an entirely reusable system.
The idea was that by building a reusable space vehicle, it would be cheap to operate and could go up often, about once a month if not more.
The Space Shuttle did end up being reusable - but not cheaply or easily. The process of making it reusable every time was almost the equivalent of building an entire new one in terms of people labour. The Space Shuttle needed boosters (the two white rockets on the side), which were recovered and reused (after a lot of labour), and a large fuel tank (the orange tank) that ended up as junk.
This complexity and cost meant the Space Shuttle wasn't cheap - it cost NASA about $1.5 billion per launch.
This made the cost of sending satellites and payloads also expensive - about $50,000 per kilogram. SpaceX's Falcon 9 and its reusability brought this down to around $1000 to $2000 per kilogram.
With the efficient and size of Starship - this cost will soon be $300 to $400 per kilogram.
Space is getting busier - and even cheaper to get to thanks to Starship.
- Brad E. Tucker is an Astrophysicist and Cosmologist at Mt Stromlo Observatory and the National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science at the ANU.
