SpaceX’s SN15 Starship performed a test flight on March 5, and for the first time completed its assigned tasks as planned through to a perfect landing. Musk quickly tweeted, “Landing nominal” after the 390-foot (120-meter) prototype returned to the launch point in Boca China, Texas. The achievement occurred on the 60th anniversary of astronaut Alan Shepard’s own history making flight in the first crewed Mercury capsule on May 5, 1961, but this was apparently a coincidence. The flight, which reached 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) in altitude, lasted for six minutes. Musk hopes to begin regular service with Starship in 2023, but admits that his own timelines can be “ambitious.”
Credit: SpaceX