The SpaceX Starship rocket was destroyed during its return to earth on Thursday, but experts are still calling the third test flight a success.
"They鈥檒l be ecstatic with the progress they made today," says York University professor Paul Delaney. "They鈥檝e gone much further with the progress in developing Starship than the previous two flights."
The first two test flights ended in explosions minutes after launch. Thursday鈥檚 flight lasted close to an hour, with Starship cruising through low orbit more than 230 kilometres above earth, before mission control lost communications with the spacecraft during its atmospheric re-entry.
麻豆影视鈥� Science and Technology Specialist Dan Riskin says that鈥檚 not necessarily a setback.
"This is really just the way you do things, you push things as hard as you can, and as long as nobody鈥檚 onboard it鈥檚 okay if it breaks, because you figure out where the breaking point is and then you go back and try something different."
The ultimate goal of SpaceX founder Elon Musk is to land people on Mars. Much sooner than that, NASA is depending on the Starship technology to return to the moon, a goal Riskin says is growing closer after Thursday鈥檚 successful launch.
鈥淲e are one step closer to the next steps on the moon. This rocket is what鈥檚 supposed to get people to the surface of the moon and walking around, then getting back in and flying home.鈥�
Much work remains before the planned Artemis III lunar landing mission -- humanity's first return to the moon's surface in more than 50 years -- currently scheduled for late 2026. This week, Musk said he is hoping for at least six more Starship flights in 2024 alone.
