Elon Musk’s Starship reaches orbit on its third attempt

THE WORLD’s largest rocket has flown again, and its uncrewed test flight on March 14th, like the two previous ones, ended in “rapid unscheduled disassembly” (ie, catastrophic explosions). But the upper stage of Starship, built by SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket company, reached orbit for the first time and completed several test operations before being destroyed while re-entering Earth’s atmosphere. In a defiant post on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, Mr Musk insisted that “Starship will make life multiplanetary.” Perhaps. This latest flight was at least another small step in that direction.