Elon Musk's Starship returns to Earth after completing landmark test flight for the first time

Elon Musk's SpaceX has successfully completed the first splash-down of its Starship rocket, bringing the billionaire one step closer to colonizing Mars.

The 400-foot-tall rocket, consisting of the Starship cruise vessel mounted atop its towering Super Heavy rocket booster, took off from Boca Chica, Texas at 8:50am ET.

Musk proclaimed the missions as an 'epic achievement' after Starship soared 130 miles above the surface and making a soft landing in the Indian Ocean as planned. 

Cheers erupted in the control center as confirmation came in, leading to SpaceX employees toasting marshmallows to celebrate Starship's 'toasty' ride. 

The previous three attempts saw the prototypes explode midair or break apart during re-entry - only tiles and a damaged flap occurred during Thursday's mission.

The 400-foot-tall rocket, consisting of the Starship cruise vessel mounted atop its towering Super Heavy rocket booster, took off from Boca Chica, Texas at 8:50am ET 

Starship shot up toward space, reaching supersonic speeds as it soared

Along with a successfully Starship splashdown, the booster also landed in the Gulf of Mexico eight minutes after take off. 

It was a critical milestone in the company's plan to eventually return the Super Heavy booster to its launch site for reuse. 

The Starship is classified as a super heavy-lift launch rocket that is celebrated as the most powerful ever built.

As the rocket reentered the atmosphere an hour after lift-off, pieces of its flap started shredding off and a hole appeared as a debris covered the camera, cracking the lens.

Starship was 'hanging on by bolts and threads,' leaving SpaceX staff and millions of people worldwide on the edge of their seats as they waited for confirmation of a splashdown after the rocket initiated its first-ever landing-burn.

The live view went in and out as the rocket started cooling, receiving applause each time it turned back on, indicating Starship was still receiving data as it decreased to 620 miles per hour - below the speed of sound.

'The payload for these flight tests is data. Building upon what we achieved during Starship's third flight test, our primary goal today is to get through the extreme heat of reentry,' SpaceX posted on X. 

A boys wears a space suit as he joins other spectators on a hazy morning to watch SpaceX's mega rocket Starship test flight from Starbase in Boca Chica

Godspeed Starship: People gathered around the Texas launch pad in the early morning to get a view of the rocket launch

The flight path will be similar to the third test, which took place in March and saw Starship fly for 49 minutes before it was eventually lost as it re-entered the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean.

Since then SpaceX has made several software and hardware upgrades.

Starship is designed to be fully reusable, which is why SpaceX wanted to control the booster's entry into the Gulf and the spacecraft's descent into the Indian Ocean — it is intended as practice for planned future landings.

However, neither stage will be recovered following Thursday's launch. 

Congratulations SpaceX on Starship's successful test flight this morning!' NASA chief Bill Nelson wrote on X.

'We are another step closer to returning humanity to the Moon through #Artemis - then looking onward to Mars.' 

Designed to eventually be fully reusable, Starship with both stages combined is 90 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty.

Its Super Heavy booster produces 16.7 million pounds (74.3 Meganewtons) of thrust, about twice as powerful as the Saturn V rockets used during the Apollo missions  - though later versions should be more powerful still.

In 2020, Musk revealed his plan for Starship to send humans to Mars.

He calculated that to put one million humans on the Red Planet by 2025, his rockets would need to conducted around three flights a day and a total of 1,000 flights a year - but 2025 is just around the corner.

The billionaire previously renewed his vow to colonize the Martian world in a post on X last month.

The booster successfully splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico about eight minutes after take-off (pictured)

Cheers erupted as the booster made the landing as previous attempts have ended in failure

'I'm going to colonize Mars. My mission in life is to make mankind multiplanetary civilization,' the post read.

Musk's reposted the message from his personal account with the accompanying words: 'Only if civilization lasts long enough.'

One day before the mission, former President Barack Obama was speaking at a renewable energy conference in Paris and mentioned 'tycoons, many of whom are building spaceships' that could take humans to Mars.'

'But when I hear some of the people talk about the plan to colonize Mars because the Earth environment may become so degraded that it becomes unlivable, I look at them like, what are you talking about,' he continued.

'I would rather us invest in taking care of this planet here.' 

While Thursday's mission did not end as planned, the test flight was the farthest performed with a Starship rocket.

Starship beamed back incredible views of space during the mission

Cheers erupted in the control center as confirmation came in, leading to SpaceX employees toasting marshmallows to celebrate Starship's 'toasty' ride

The most powerful and largest launch vehicle ever constructed, Starship achieved one key first goal: successful separation from its Super Heavy booster.

Since then, SpaceX has conducted three launch attempts that have ended in Starship's fiery destruction, all part of what the company said was an acceptable cost in its rapid trial-and-error approach to development. 

While the booster, dubbed Booster 10, fell back to Earth and crashed into the Gulf of Mexico as planned during March's launch, only a few engines were still firing.

A failed separation is what forced SpaceX to pull the kill switch during its first attempt, prompting Starship to explode mid-air.

The $3 billion attempt was still considered a success, according to SpaceX, and NASA congratulated the company for successfully reaching Earth's orbit for the first time in a post on X.

'Together,' it said, 'we are making great strides through Artemis to return humanity to the Moon—then look onward to Mars.'