Latest Starship flight prompts praise and worries at IAC

MILAN — For many of the more than 11,000 participants at the International Astronautical Congress this year, the biggest news of the week-long conference was not anything that took place within the sprawling convention center here but instead more than 9,000 kilometers away.

The latest flight of SpaceX’s Starship/Super Heavy vehicle, which took place in Boca Chica, Texas, on Oct. 13, a day before the opening ceremony for IAC, demonstrated the ability of the Super Heavy booster to return to the launch site and be “caught” by mechanical arms attached to the launch tower. That was a major step towards the rapid reusability the company envisions for the vehicle, and which will be needed for some of its key near-term missions like NASA’s Human Landing System (HLS) program.

SpaceX itself kept a low profile at IAC, with no booth in the exhibit hall and no major presentations, but the flight was the talk of the show for many, illustrating SpaceX’s capabilities and, for some, a growing gap with the rest of the industry.

For NASA, the flight was a sign that development of the HLS version of Starship was on track for Artemis 3, which remains officially scheduled for no earlier than September 2026.

“Just yesterday, SpaceX has a very successful fifth launch as they develop this very large rocket,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said during an Oct. 14 plenary session that features the heads of several space agencies. “This was another one of the steps in the iteration of developing that.”

He added at a press conference the next day that work on the HLS version of Starship was on schedule. “I think you saw as a result of Sunday’s test of SpaceX and its big rocket that they are moving along very well, and that will determine ultimately the timing for the landing of Artemis 3 on the moon,” he said. “As of Sunday’s test, it was right on the mark.”

“They are right on making the benchmarks as they are planning to land in late ’26,” he said of SpaceX later in the briefing.

The success of the flight was also welcomed by companies that plan to use Starship for other missions, from launching large payloads like commercial space stations into low Earth orbit to commercial missions to the moon.

For others in industry and government, though, the latest Starship test flight prompted different reactions, particularly among European companies and agencies as the continent emerges from a “launcher crisis” with the successful inaugural launch of Ariane 6 in July and the return to flight of Vega C in early December.

“Congratulations to SpaceX, what an incredible feat of engineering! Mars, here we come,” Rocket Factory Augsburg stated in a social media post Oct 14. “At the same time, the coin has a second side: it shows and confirms that Europe has completely lost touch. Can it still catch up? No chance. At least not the way things are going at the moment.”

The company, whose first RFA ONE launch vehicle was lost in a static-fire test accident in August, called for governments in Europe to serve as anchor customers for new launch vehicles, increased investment and “a framework that allows and promotes unbureaucratic, fast and risk-taking development.”

In an Oct. 15 interview, Josef Aschbacher, director general of the European Space Agency, said he was “fascinated” by the launch from an engineering perspective. “I then have to think, what does it mean for Europe, and to see what would be the change in the landscape and the ecosystem, and what do we need to do.”

Europe, he acknowledged, cannot compete head-to-head with Starship but could instead take advantage of broader changes in the space economy enabled by Starship. “How do we position ourselves in this ecosystem that is developing now?” he said. “You can imagine that if Starship brings 100 tons into space frequently, this will change everything out there in space, how things are constructed and how space is being utilized.”

He said it was “interesting” RFA was criticizing Europe for falling further behind in launch, noting that Europe was taking steps to make the launch industry more competitive while supporting emerging markets like commercial cargo transportation. “We are on the right track. We are going full speed in this direction.”

Starship, as well as SpaceX’s reuse of Falcon 9 boosters, have made it clear to many that reusability is essential for future launch vehicles. S. Somanath, chairman of the Indian space agency, noted in the Oct. 14 plenary that the Indian government recently approved development of the Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV) that will provide increased payload performance over existing rockets and with a reusable booster. He estimated NGLV will take six years to develop.

“I think all of you realize that reusability is mandatory for launchers,” he said.

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