JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Today, the commercial company SpaceX conducted a fourth test of its giant rocket called Starship. As NPR's Geoff Brumfiel reports, this latest test may have been the most important one yet.
GEOFF BRUMFIEL, BYLINE: Starship's engines roared as it lifted off the path.
(SOUNDBITE OF ROCKET ENGINE THUNDERING)
BRUMFIEL: The giant rocket lumbered skyward. Then it separated from its enormous booster known as Super Heavy. Super Heavy fell back to Earth. As it did, it flipped itself vertical and fired its engines to touch down gently under control in the Gulf of Mexico.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: There's that landing burn.
(APPLAUSE)
BRUMFIEL: Getting the booster back was a big deal. On previous flights, it exploded. Starship, meanwhile, went on to space. It cruised up there for about an hour while SpaceX played some soothing music.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
BRUMFIEL: But pretty soon, sparks started flying - literally. As Starship re entered the atmosphere, a camera onboard showed its underside glowing white hot. Then, parts of the spacecraft started to melt.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Yeah. It does appear that we have a little bit of burn-through there. We can see pieces of the vehicle flying off.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: This is wild to see this. But the ship is still coming down. This was incredible to see.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: How far can it go? That is the question.
BRUMFIEL: It got a little bit hard to tell how it was going because the camera became covered in debris.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: The good news is we still got - oh, looks like that camera lens just cracked.
(LAUGHTER)
BRUMFIEL: But bruised and battered, cracked camera and all, Starship appeared to flip itself vertical and land in the Indian Ocean, exactly as it was supposed to in this test.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: From South Texas to the other side of the Earth, Starship is in the water.
BRUMFIEL: Jonathan McDowell, a researcher at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, watched today's launch.
JONATHAN MCDOWELL: There's a lot of steps still to go, but this is very encouraging progress.
BRUMFIEL: SpaceX needs Starship and its big booster to land every time so they can rapidly reuse them to launch again. McDowell says even though Starship got beat up, based on what he saw today, he thinks it's possible.
MCDOWELL: This is the point where you go, OK, yeah, this is going to work out as an orbital launch vehicle.
BRUMFIEL: Eventually, NASA wants Starship to land astronauts on the moon. And one day, it might even carry them to Mars.
Geoff Brumfiel, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF STARSHIP SONG, "NOTHING'S GONNA STOP US NOW")
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