Opinion The Third Edit: Elon Musk’s reusable rocket is a step towards space travel

At sunrise on Sunday, a spaceship, about 90 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty blasted off from the Boca Chica base in Texas, USA. Three minutes and 40 seconds into the launch, its booster detached from the vessel and made its way back towards the Texas coast. Near the tower, the rocket slowed to a hover. But, instead of splashing into the ocean or landing at the launch pad — as is typical of rockets — the booster nestled into the chopstick-like arms of the launch tower. This technical wizardry by Elon Musk’s SpaceX can reduce the need for complex hardware on the ground and enable the rapid deployment of the vehicle for future forays.

The audacious manoeuvre is part of the rehearsals for SpaceX’s goal of developing fully reusable rockets capable of ferrying humans and supplies to space. NASA is a believer in Elon Musk’s space enterprise. Starship is slated to land astronauts on the Moon in less than two years as part of the American space agency’s Artemis mission. Musk also has plans to establish human colonies on Mars in less than a decade. Last year, tech billionaire Jared Issacman and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis did a spacewalk. Questions were raised then: Did the venture contribute to knowledge? What about environmental impacts? With Elon Musk aspiring to turn rockets into jetliners more such questions are bound to be raised.

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The critics have a point. The observations of the first space travellers enhanced understanding of the universe. Having more humans in space is at, one level, a continuation of that endeavour. But the Earth’s most intelligent species also needs to weigh all the pros and cons before crowding the planet’s nearest celestial neighbours. That’s why SpaceX’s latest venture is exciting and challenging.