SpaceX had a landmark event Thursday with its Starship space vehicle—the world’s most powerful rocket—when it successfully entered the earth in a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean during its fourth test flight.
The feat is crucial for NASA’s plans to send astronauts back to the moon by September 2026 and Elon Musk’s goal of exploring other planets.
SpaceX also managed to soft land the rocket’s booster in the Gulf of Mexico.
Starship aims to make space travel more like commercial flights by being fully reusable. The rocket, nearly 400 feet tall, launched from Texas and faced extreme heat and pressure during re-entry. Despite losing some tiles and damage to a flap, it successfully landed in the ocean.
During a previous test flight in March, the Starship rocket lost contact during re-entry.
Meanwhile, Boeing and NASA worked through issues with their Starliner spacecraft, which had some thruster problems, and successfully docked with the International Space Station.