In a first, SpaceX's most powerful rocket Starship makes 'soft landing' in Indian Ocean | WATCH

livemint.com:

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted, “Despite loss of many tiles and a damaged flap, Starship made it all the way to a soft landing in the ocean!"The company had earlier said, "If Starship manages to make it all the way to reentry, we'll collect valuable data on the vehicle at hypersonic speeds, or more than 5x the speed of sound."Thursday's flight was a significant feat for SpaceX's Starship, as the three previous attempts ended in its fiery destruction. It was the fourth launch of the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket, standing nearly 400 feet (121 meters) tall."This time, the rocket and the spacecraft managed to splash down in a controlled fashion, making the hourlong flight the longest and most successful yet," news agency Associated Press reported.SpaceX had earlier said the Starship, on its fourth test, will fly a similar trajectory as the previous flight test, with a targeted splashdown of the Ship in the Indian Ocean.

"The fourth flight of Starship will aim to bring us closer to the rapidly reusable future on the horizon," it added.Sparks and debris flew off the spaceship as it came down over the Indian Ocean northwest of Australia, dramatic video captured by an onboard camera showed, even as it succeeded in its goal of surviving atmospheric re-entry, news agency AFP reported.During the last test in March, the spaceship managed to fly for 49 minutes before it was lost as it careened into the atmosphere at around 27,000 kilometers per hour (nearly 17,000 mph). Since then SpaceX made several software and hardware upgrades.On Thursday it also succeeded in the first soft splashdown for the first stage booster called Super Heavy, in the Gulf of Mexico, to massive applause from engineers at mission control in Hawthorne