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SpaceX achieved new feats during the sixth major test launch of its Starship system but nixed an eagerly anticipated midair “catch” of the rocket’s booster as President-elect Donald Trump looked on in South Texas.

SpaceX’s launch system, comprised of the booster and Starship upper spacecraft, cleared the tower shortly after 4 p.m. local time on Tuesday. But minutes into the flight, SpaceX scrapped plans to attempt to catch the booster with giant mechanical arms — referred to as “chopsticks” — which the company completed during its previous flight. The booster, dubbed Super Heavy, was still able to perform a controlled landing in the ocean.

“It was pretty epic on attempt one, but the safety of the teams and the public and the pad itself are paramount,” SpaceX engineer Kate Tice said on a live broadcast. “So we are accepting compromises.”

After Super Heavy landed in the Gulf of Mexico, Starship continued its voyage through space. At one point, it successfully reignited one of its Raptor engines — the first time SpaceX was able to do so during these flight tests. Starship will need to reignite its engines in order to control its descent to Earth and maneuver through space.

Starship then circled most of the globe before plunging through the atmosphere about 45 minutes into the mission, its body engulfed in the reddish orange glow of plasma as its upgraded heat shield endured intense temperatures while hurtling back to Earth. 

Starship appeared to survive the reentry, moving its exterior flaps to help guide its descent, though some showed signs of burn and slight damage. Then, as Starship fell through clouds, it flipped itself and reignited its engines to turn upright and softly splash into the Indian Ocean shortly after 6 p.m. New York time. It then appeared to catch on fire.

“Turns out the vehicle had more capability than our calculations predicted, and that is why we test like we fly,” Tice said.

The largest and most powerful rocket ever developed, Starship is under contract to function as a lunar lander that NASA will use to put people back on the moon for the first time in half a century. It’s the centerpiece of Musk’s ambition to start a settlement on Mars. 

The vehicle is also meant to revolutionise SpaceX’s business plan. Designed to be fully reusable, Starship will be much cheaper to fly than any other rocket, according to SpaceX, and will eventually replace the company’s industry-leading Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. 

But to meet that promise of delivering a fully reusable rocket, SpaceX must refine its technique for recovering all of the pieces of Starship after launch.

Around the time SpaceX aborted the booster catch, Trump and Musk left to visit the Starfactory courtyard for a visual tour of the factory bays and rockets. 

Trump had arrived at a launch viewing location with Musk about an hour before liftoff. Trump, wearing a blue suit and red MAGA hat, stood flanked by allies, including Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz and Donald Trump Jr., as the group peppered Musk with questions on how the launch works.

It was Trump’s first visit to a Starship launch. It follows several appearances with Musk, who has spent a significant amount of time at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, joining in on transition meetings and phone calls with foreign leaders. The billionaire, who campaigned on behalf of Trump in crucial swing state Pennsylvania, will lead a newly created Department of Government Efficiency, an entity that will recommend federal spending cuts, alongside former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

Musk, who has been a near-constant fixture of Trump’s inner circle since the Nov. 5 election, has maintained that overregulation, especially surrounding Starship, factored into his decision to support the Republican. 

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said on Friday that as many as 400 Starship flights were possible over the next four years. That frequency can only happen if SpaceX perfects its landing strategy, so the company can quickly turn around the rockets for their next flights. Shotwell described the process as similar to the way airlines drive down the cost of owning and operating commercial jetliners.

During the October test, the booster came very close to crashing near the tower, Musk said in a video on his X platform. SpaceX will need to address that issue as well as a laundry list of other things, such as refueling the vehicle in space, before Starship lives up to the full scope of Musk’s plans.

© 2024 Bloomberg LP

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Scientists Reportedly Found a Potential Sign of Life on a Distant Planet: What You Need to Know

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April 25, 2025

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Scientists Reportedly Found a Potential Sign of Life on a Distant Planet: What You Need to Know

A team of astronomers have reportedly discovered biological activity outside the solar system. The scientists have revealed that the distant planet, named K2-18 b, comprises more than one molecule in its atmosphere that potentially has been generated by living things. However, this revelation has made a sensation among astronomers across the world, more specifically for those who study biosignatures in exoplanet atmospheres.

 

According to report by Nature.com, K2-18 b is a planet that is smaller than Neptune. It lies at a distance of 38 parsecs above the Earth.

About the Discovery

Dimethyl sulphide (DMS) has been discovered by scientists from the University of Cambridge, UK, in the atmosphere of K2-18b. The DMS molecule is generated by living organisms, which has raised speculations about the potential for life on this distant planet. The scientists used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to implement research. Also, the discovery happened when a molecule was detected in the starlight filtering through the planet’s atmosphere. These chemicals have raised curiosity amongst astronomers as they are generated by living organisms on the planet Earth.

This discovery first came into the light in the year 2023. However, the new revelations have been made as a result of the follow-up on similar findings. This time, the scientists used different wavelengths and a research strategy to support their discovery of molecules on the distant planet. .

Significance of this Discovery

For decades, scientists have been engrossed in studying life beyond Earth. Now that the pieces of evidence are hinting towards the potential existence of DMS or DMDS on K2-18 b. If proven, this will be a historic win for the scientists. Furthermore, this discovery is a step towards understanding planets from a broader perspective. Overall, more than 5,800 planets have been detected throughout the Universe.

Reason Behind Uncertainty by Other Researchers

The scientists are sceptical about this discovery as they doubt whether DMS or DMDS are really present or is K2-18 b is barren. While some of the researchers are not confident about the discovery, the expert team of scientists from the University of Cambridge, UK, is working extensively to provide a proven base to support their findings.

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Space Veteran Astronaut Returns to Earth to Celebrate his Birthday on April 20

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April 25, 2025

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Space Veteran Astronaut Returns to Earth to Celebrate his Birthday on April 20

The oldest veteran astronaut from NASA landed from the International Space Station on his 70th birthday. Donald Pettit, the U.S astronaut, reached Earth after seven months with his crew members Aleksey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, two Russian cosmonauts. The spacecraft Soyuz MS-26 launched on September 11, 2024 and came back to Earth on Saturday, April 20, 2025, at 6:20 AM local time in the steppes of Kazakhstan. He has made a remarkable history by landing on his birthday. He is a renowned name in the space world and has completed 13 spacewalk hours.

Legacy of Pettit

According to reported by space.com , This was the fourth flight of Pettit and Ovchinin, but the second for Vagner. Pettit worked for 590 days, Ovchinin for 595 days, and Vagner for 416 days in space until now, counted after this landing. This trio orbited Earth 3,520 times and finished this 93.3 million-mile journey throughout their mission. NASA astronaut and Expedition 73 flight engineer Nichole Ayers wrote on X on Saturday, saying goodbye today to Donald Pettit. It’s a bittersweet moment as Pettit had an amazing mission by inspiring many individuals while being here.

Back to Earth

The trio began their arrival at 5:57 PM EDT on Saturday, as the Soyuz spacecraft undocked from the station. The vehicle had deorbited burn for around two and a half hours, shedding its orbit, leaving the gumdrop-shaped capsule to bring all of them home. Anne McCain, Ayers, and Jonny Kim, together with JAXA astronaut and Commander of expedition 73, Takuya Onishi, Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky, are the ones who are still in space.

Soyuz Spacecraft MS-26

It marked a significant spaceflight to the ISS (International Space Station), from its launch to landing, as it transported three well-experienced crew members, including Donald Pettit, Ivan Vagner, and Aleksey Ovchinin, to space for long-term microgravity research in the field of biology, physics, and material science. The spacecraft also docked as an emergency space vehicle for up to 220 days.

Pettit’s Achievements

Many people who follow the science of opportunity demonstrations and photographs of Earth by him know that he is a man of great contributions. Pettit has also helped to oversee the departure of Spacex’s Crew-9 mission on Dragon Freedom, along with Crew-10 on Dragon Endurance and the Cygnus departure of a cargo ship. He has also been a flight engineer for Expedition 30/31 in 2012. Pettit has made major contributions by discovering g-cups to drink coffee in space and polarised photography from space.

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New Study Finds Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall Bigger and Nearer Than Thought

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April 23, 2025

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New Study Finds Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall Bigger and Nearer Than Thought

Astronomers have revealed that the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall, a massive network of galaxies, might be bigger than they realised. By mapping the cosmos with gamma-ray bursts (GRBs)—the brightest explosions in the universe—astronomers found that this structure is even bigger than previously estimated. Surprisingly, portions of it also lie significantly closer to Earth than previously believed, challenging fundamental assumptions about how the universe is structured and evolves.
This cosmic structure was first observed in 2014 — a dense galaxy forming a filament of a supercluster.

A new study now extends the researchers’ previous work, but with a wider GRB sample. Hakkila and Zsolt Bagoly, authors of the study, have refined the measurements. They detected a number of relatively nearby GRBs in their sample. The evidence also shows the Great Wall is larger and wider than previously predicted.

Gamma-Ray Bursts Expose Structure Too Large for Current Models

According to a Space.com report, the GRBs figure prominently in the early discovery and more recent growth of the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall. These explosive outbursts — from either collapsing massive stars or colliding neutron stars — produce powerful jets that can be spotted over cosmological distances. Hakkila told the publication that GRBs act as another bright beacon for identifying galaxies, even those too faint to see directly. Because of their brightness, scientists can follow matter throughout the universe more distinctly than ever.

The Great Wall, over 10 billion light-years long, challenges the cosmological principle of uniform universe appearance. Its massive size indicates gaps in current theories and implies that the universe’s formation time was insufficient for such massive structures.

THESEUS May Reveal Full Scale of Cosmic Great Wall

NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Burst observations reveal 542 GRB events, but more data is needed to fully understand the Great Wall’s scope due to misidentified origins and sparse sampling. Hakkila points toward the upcoming ESA mission THESEUS — the Transient High Energy Sources and Early Universe Surveyor — as the next major leap.

The mission aims to dramatically expand the catalogue of known GRBs, particularly at extreme distances. “It could finally provide the observational leverage needed to map the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall to its full extent,” Hakkila told Space.com, emphasising its role in refining our understanding of the universe’s large-scale structure.

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