Norman Lewis
‘A day for the engineering history books.’ That is how Kate Tice, a senior engineering manager at SpaceX, characterised her company’s achievements this weekend.
She’s not wrong. On Sunday, Elon Musk’s SpaceX managed a remarkable feat. It caught the massive booster stage from its Starship rocket in a pair of giant robotic arms as it fell back to the company’s ‘Mechazilla’ launchpad in southern Texas.
SpaceX has taken another huge step closer to developing a fully reusable rocket system whose parts can be recovered and reused. As such, Sunday’s giant booster catch also marked another significant milestone in Elon Musk’s ambitious plan to send people and cargo to the Moon and, eventually, Mars.
Since its foundation in 2002, SpaceX has opened up a new frontier in space exploration. It has revived the dream of establishing Moon bases, from which humankind could potentially colonise Mars. And it has reignited the ambition of NASA, too. The US government agency originally withdrew from further Moon landings back in 1972. Now, in response to SpaceX, it has developed its Artemis lunar programme, which aims to get humans living and working on the Moon and ultimately lay the ground for future missions to Mars. Musk’s Starship will be integral to helping NASA get there.
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