Elon Musk’s Starship successfully reaches orbit and refuels in SPACE for first time ever – before contact is lost

SPACEX has successfully flown its Starship into orbit and refuelled it from space in a first-of-its-kind feat during a third test launch today.

While the spacecraft fell apart on reentry, it completed several mission objectives that mark the flight a success.

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Starship is the spacecraft intended to get boots on the moon in 2026, and will eventual become the ferry that takes humans to Mars.

The rocket launched on 14 March at 1:25pm GMT/ 8:25am CT following several push-backs over weather conditions.

Despite a windy start, Starship has smashed records set by its second launch attempt in November, which exploded roughly 10 minutes after launch.

The third flight saw SpaceX attempt procedures it hadn't tested before, including:

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• Opening and closing Starship's payload door (where Starlink satellites will eventually be deployed from)
• A propellant transfer demonstration during the upper stage’s coast phase
• A controlled reentry into Earth's atmosphere

These mission objectives made this Starship's most ambitious flight yet.

Achieving a propellant - or fuel - transfer while up in the air will be essential to landing humans on the moon and for having enough gas to reach Mars and other locations in deep space.

SpaceX has announced that the payload door test and propellant transfer demonstration is complete, making the launch a success.

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The third test flight was supposed to demonstrate the first ever re-light of a Raptor engine while in space.

However, the team decided to skip that process and save that for Starship's fourth flight.

Following the second launch attempt, Elon Musk - founder of SpaceX - said Starship's third attempt had a good shot at success.

Musk has congratulated the SpaceX team on X: "Starship reached orbital velocity! Congratulations."

Instead of the Pacific, Starship and its booster targeted a new trajectory and a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

US vs China

The SpaceX team say Starship has flown faster and "further than ever before

The achievement pushes the US firmly ahead of China in the race for the moon.

China is still yet to test its rival moon rocket Long March 10, which it will attempt to fly for the first time sometime between 2025 and 2026.

The US and China are competing to get to the moon's south pole first, which both countries believe is the most viable location for a permanent lunar base.

Nasa administrator Bill Nelson fears Beijing's military presence in the South China Sea suggests how the country might behave on the lunar surface, which would breach the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.

Nelson's concerns were voiced before China unveiled plans to build a Disneyland-sized lunar base and a lunar nuclear reactor with Russia.

Life on Mars

Starship is the embodiment of Musk's personal mission to make humans an interplanetary species.

The 33-engine, $3billion mega-rocket is designed to transport up to 100 people from Earth to the moon and eventually Mars in the 2030s.

In a SpaceX livestream prior to launch, the team said Starship is "critical" to create a "self-sustaining city" on Mars.

From the onset, Starship was designed with the capacity to store more than 100tons of cargo.

This is so it can store everything needed to build permanent bases on both alien worlds.

Not only is it the tallest rocket to ever be flown, the first stage of Starship, known as the Super Heavy booster, is the most powerful rocket ever built and can produce up to 7.6million kilograms of thrust.

That is nearly double the current record held by Nasa’s Space Launch System (SLS).

Starship, developed as part of a $1.15billion contract with Nasa, refers to the reusable stainless steel top half of the rocket.

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Whereas as the bottom half of the rocket is its booster, known as Super Heavy.

Not only will the rocket be critical in future Mars missions, but it has also been selected to launch a new outpost that is intended to replaced the ageing International Space Station.

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