In Full: SpaceX's Starship rocket successfully returns to Earth for first time

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has successfully launched Starship, its superheavy rocket that the billionaire believes can carry mankind to the Moon, Mars and beyond.

Starship’s previous three test flights ended with a fiery explosion for the 400ft tall launcher, but each made incremental progress and gathered fresh data.

The mission had been expected to blast off from Starbase in Texas at 7am local time – or 1pm UK time – however a last minute delay has pushed the timetable back by 50 minutes. Lift off is now expected at 7.50am US central time.

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[pixel]

your telling me the title isnt trying to say it failed?!
this is a miracle

[khaledadams]

Damaged but still-actuating flap is my hero.

[joesmoe]

Elon should have named it The Black Night instead of Starship, because it was like every time a piece came off it was like it said "HA! A mere scratch!"

[joythought]

Nice share, Telegraph. Congrats SpaceX. Incredible progress and commitment.

[deleriumslayer]

Imagine dozens of lines of starships, 24/7 launching / receiving to mars.

[blackterminal]

The way it screams its defiance to gravity as it launches its bulk is blood curling. Amazing.

[bandilebandzour]

Good camera angles on that spaceship and rocket

[SteenLarsen]

Amazing flight! Seeing a live video feed during re-entry was a first and unbelievable!

[pauljefferies]

The flap stayed on! Very very impressive!

[Dave-ksfi]

Love the camera angles capturing the true size of that thing. It's a flying building

[S.Sheezy]

For those who are not educated on this comment thread, the meaning of a "test flight" is not to go from point A to point B, it is to show the possibility of navigation to Mars and back. They are testing launch and re-entry. Compare this with the Boeing Starliner!

[Despicable_G]

2000 years from now they’re gonna be pulling ancient starships out of the ocean just like we do old galleons

[RRC]

Such a great choice of music. It’s what plays during auto-docking in Elite: Dangerous

[THATBOINEON]

42:30 did anyone else see something fly off, probably not big deal but still intriguing

[MadPoliticalPrisoner]

Wish the date of mission could be included on info.

[DeivydasZeimys]

Ou, is it because its not actually going right up, but kind of horizontally

[KenKobayashiRasmussen]

Everytime I see the process of SpaceX I am in awe and am filled with so much respect toward each and everyone who dared to dream. But I must admit, having followed spaceX or Mr. Musk's startup in 2012, I am beginning to wonder if NASA really did achieve what they say they did in the 60's and 70's. 12 years and thousands of dedicated people and the best engineers from around the world and SpaceX has "only" just succeeded in launching its first starship? I do understand that the starships are much bigger and the efforts put into reusing the starships by automated return and landing plus catching arms, but we still see the starship absolutely dissolving entering our atmosphere, can anyone explain this to me?

[blancareynoso]

Extreme temperature on return to earth day, be careful! Physical friction friction + speed detachment of the taylesmosaic.

[noetic]

awesome good job SpaceX, but lets all just ignore all them flying objects going in and out of earth... and no im not talking about the tumbling ice ... 41:10 through 44:50

[RamSF]

The emotions from the team and crowd made this so intense and such a better experience