By Amy Thompson
On Tuesday, SpaceX got a little bit closer to helping put astronauts back on the moon. The first two astronauts to ride its Crew Dragon returned to Earth safely after two months in orbit, and one of its design teams has finished Elon Musk's challenge. Build a deep space rocket out of stainless steel.
The latest prototype of SpaceX's Starship, an interplanetary vehicle, took a short hop as part of a test of its Raptor rocket and to see if its frame would hold up. As seen in the image, it looks like a steel cylinder. It flew sideways at an altitude of about 500 feet for one minute and landed safely on its legs. Some of its predecessors, however, were not so lucky, blowing up or catching fire upon starting. SpaceX has said that it learns more from failures than successes, and the failures led to the success today.
The 30 meter tall SN5 is a bit shorter than the lunar lander will be, and the actual Starship will have a nose cone, flaps, and more engines. It will also have a first stage booster called the "Super Heavy" that is still in development stages.
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