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The success marked a major milestone in improving the development of a fully reusable spacecraft that could carry both crew and cargo on interplanetary flights. SpaceX is aiming to use the spacecraft to take humans to the Moon and eventually to Mars.
Now the private rocket company is focusing on its next step in testing the 160 foot tall Starship rocket.
In a Federal Communications Commission filing, SpaceX outlined plans to launch a Starship rocket atop a Super Heavy booster from its facility in Boca Chica, Texas. The booster will then separate midair about three minutes into the flight and land in the Gulf of Mexico about 20 miles from shore.
SpaceX has conducted multiple test flights of Starship prototypes over the past year, but the plans outline the company s first attempt to reach orbit with the rocket.
Starship prototypes stand at about 160 feet tall, or around the size of a 16-story building, and are built of stainless steel – representing the early version of the rocket that Musk unveiled in 2019. The rocket initially launches on a Super Heavy booster, which makes up the bottom half of the rocket and stands about 230 feet tall. Together, Starship and Super Heavy will be nearly 400 feet tall when stacked for the launch.
SpaceX
An artist s rendering shows SpaceX s Starship rocket launching on top of its Super Heavy booster.