Space X

On November 16, 2020, Falcon 9 launched Dragon with astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Soichi Noguchi on board to the International Space Station for its first six-month operational mission. After 167 days in space – the longest duration mission for a U.S. spacecraft since the final Skylab mission in 1974 – Dragon and the Crew-1 astronauts returned to Earth on Sunday, May 2, 2021.

On Wednesday, May 5, Starship serial number 15 (SN15) successfully completed SpaceX’s fifth high-altitude flight test of a Starship prototype from Starbase in Texas. SN15 ascended, transitioned propellant, and reoriented itself for reentry and a controlled aerodynamic descent. The Raptor engines reignited to perform the landing flip maneuver before touching down for a nominal landing on the pad. These Starship test flights improve our understanding and development of a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry crew and cargo on long-duration interplanetary flights, help humanity return to the Moon, and travel to Mars and beyond.

On March 3, Starship serial number 10 (SN10) completed SpaceX’s third high-altitude flight test of a Starship prototype as it successfully ascended, transitioned propellant, and reoriented itself for reentry and an active aerodynamic controlled descent. SN10’s Raptor engines reignited to perform the vehicle’s landing flip maneuver immediately before successfully touching down on the landing pad. Test flights such as SN10’s are about improving our understanding and development of a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo on long-duration interplanetary flights, and help humanity return to the Moon, and travel to Mars and beyond.

At SpaceX, we are actively developing technologies with the potential to change the course of life on Earth and beyond. We believe that hard work and innovative solutions result in big gains, so we prioritize hiring top talent and cultivating a culture based on merit. From building our interplanetary transport system to working with astronauts and deploying our Starlink broadband internet system, all SpaceX employees directly contribute to making our mission of making humanity multi-planetary a reality. Go to www.spacex.com/careers to join the mission.

Starship gave us quite a show during the first flight test of a fully integrated Starship (S24) and Super Heavy rocket (B7) from Starbase in Texas. On April 20, 2023 at 8:33 a.m. CT, Starship successfully lifted off from the orbital launch pad for the first time. The vehicle cleared the pad and beach as Starship climbed to an apogee of ~39 km over the Gulf of Mexico – the highest of any Starship to-date. With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and we learned a tremendous amount about the vehicle and ground systems today that will help us improve on future flights of Starship.