This was the fourth test flight, after two previous flights last year ended in explosions after take-off. On a third test flight, last March, the spacecraft made an orbital flight, but was lost before the scheduled landing.

With this model of the ship, the United States intends to train astronauts again in 2026 and go to Mars. The last time astronauts set foot on the moon was in 1972.

Today, the Starship prototype took off at 1:50pm (Lisbon time) from SpaceX's base in Boca Chica, Texas, with separation of the propulsion module – called Super Heavy – occurring three minutes into the flight. Four minutes later, the unit docked in the Gulf of Mexico as scheduled.

After an hour and five minutes of orbital flight, at an altitude of 160 kilometers, the spacecraft landed in a controlled manner in the Indian Ocean, west of Australia.

“Despite the loss of several parts and the wing being damaged, the spacecraft was able to land smoothly in the ocean!” SpaceX CEO, entrepreneur Elon Musk, congratulated on the X social network.

From today's flight, for which SpaceX performed software and hardware updates, nothing was recovered, even though the spacecraft is designed to be reusable.

Starship and Super Heavy form the world's most powerful spacecraft, standing 121 meters tall (taller than the Cristo Rey Sanctuary in Almada).