SpaceX launches, lands Starship in 1st successful flight

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX has finally launched and successfully landed its futuristic Starship. The full-scale, stainless steel, bullet-shaped rocketship blasted off from the southeastern tip of Texas on Wednesday in the company’s latest test flight. It soared more than 6 miles, before flipping and descending horizontally. It then went vertical again just in time for touchdown. A fire at the base of the rocket quickly was extinguished, and the rocket remained standing. It was the fifth high-altitude test flight of the rocketship that SpaceX’s Elon Musk plans to use to land astronauts on the moon and send people to Mars.