On Thursday, March 14, 2024, a stainless steel giant stood poised on a dusty plain in South Texas, aimed at the sky. At 9:25 a.m. Eastern Time, it roared to life, a pillar of smoke and flame, and lifted itself into the clear blue.
The SpaceX Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built and the largest flying object ever made, had taken flight.
Starship’s triumph is a resounding affirmation of the unconquerable American spirit of space innovation. From Mercury and Gemini to the legendary Apollo missions that conquered the Moon, the United States has relentlessly pushed the limits of what’s possible in the heavens. This achievement is but the latest chapter in a storied history of American leadership and ingenuity in the final frontier.
Now, with the advent of Starship, the team at SpaceX is carrying the torch of this proud legacy. Starship’s staggering scale and capabilities dwarf those of any other rocket in existence. Standing taller than the Statue of Liberty and boasting 33 powerful Raptor engines, it generates a jaw-dropping 16 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. To put this in perspective, the Saturn V rocket that propelled the Apollo astronauts to the Moon produced 7.6 million pounds of thrust.
Starship’s flight marks the dawn of a new era in spaceflight, one where gargantuan rockets will launch not once in a blue moon, but with regularity, carrying enormous payloads and, eventually, human crews to the far reaches of the solar system. It is a future that many had relegated to the realm of science fiction, but Thursday, Starship made it tangible.
Of course, the flight was not without its share of setbacks. After a triumphant liftoff and ascent, Starship met an untimely end over the Indian Ocean. “We have lost Ship 28,” came the somber announcement from mission control.
But in the world of space innovation, failure is not a verdict — it is the way.
The early pioneers of spaceflight understood this all too well. In 1957, the United States’s first attempt at launching a satellite, Vanguard TV3, erupted in a fiery explosion mere seconds after liftoff. The Mercury program, which aimed to put an American in orbit, was plagued by a series of launchpad aborts and suborbital failures before Alan Shepard finally achieved success aboard Freedom 7.
Even the vaunted Apollo program, which ultimately triumphed in landing Americans on the Moon, was no stranger to setbacks. In 1967, the tragic Apollo 1 fire claimed the lives of three astronauts during a launchpad test. Undeterred, NASA pressed on, learning from each failure and refining its craft. The very next year, Apollo 7 orbited the Earth, paving the way for Apollo 11’s historic lunar landing.
Each second that Starship defied gravity was a validation of the effort poured into its creation. In the coming days and weeks, SpaceX’s engineers will meticulously analyze every scrap of data from this flight, learning from both their triumphs and their missteps. They will sift through the wreckage and apply those hard-won lessons to ensure that the next Starship flies higher, farther and more assuredly.
This indefatigable spirit, this refusal to be cowed by adversity, is the very essence of American exceptionalism. It is the same spirit that carried the Apollo 11 astronauts to the lunar surface and back, and it is the spirit that will propel us to Mars and beyond.
In the not-too-distant future, a Starship will once again stand tall on that Texas launchpad, its engines igniting in a blaze of glory as it begins its journey to redefine the limits of human possibility. And when that day comes, when American astronauts once again set foot on the Moon or make history as the first humans to walk on Mars, they will owe a debt of gratitude not only to the SpaceX team and the groundbreaking flight of March 2024, but to generations of American space pioneers.
Starship’s maiden voyage may be over, but its legacy has only just begun. It is a powerful reminder that, even in an era of division and uncertainty, the American spirit of innovation, exploration, and perseverance burns as brightly as ever. Ad astra per aspera — to the stars, through hardship.
Jimmy Soni is the best-selling and award-winning author of “THE FOUNDERS.”