Elon Musk's Starship successfully lands after fourth test flight

After three failed bids earlier, Elon Musk's Starship successfully touched down in the Indian Ocean northwest of Australia Thursday after completing its fourth test flight, as the billionaire has aimed to take humanity to Mars.

A large number of debris flew off SpaceX's 33-raptor engine rocket in a video that was being live-streamed and connected with the company's Starlink satellite. 

The camera was attached to the spaceship which provided the real-time trajectory, speed, and altitude of the vehicle even after its successful atmospheric re-entry.

Chief Engineer and CEO of SpaceX Elon Musk wrote on his social media platform: "Despite loss of many tiles and a damaged flap, Starship made it all the way to a soft landing in the ocean! Congratulations SpaceX team on an epic achievement!!"

The most powerful rocket ever lifted off from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas at 7:50am local time. It entered the orbit and soared halfway across the globe, in a journey that lasted around an hour and five minutes.

Starship is central to 52-year-old Musk's vision of reaching Mars and making humanity an interplanetary species, while Nasa has contracted the company to build a vehicle that will take astronauts down to the surface of the Moon under the Artemis program later this decade.

Three previous attempts have ended in its fiery destruction, all part of what the company says is an acceptable cost in its rapid trial-and-error approach to development.

"The payload for these flight tests is data," SpaceX said on X, a mantra repeated throughout the flight by the commentary team idea of when it might actually happen.

The total value of SpaceX’s Human Landing System (HSL) is worth $4.2 billion through 2027, according to CNBC. Nasa has paid Musk’s company about $1.8 billion.