While the World Applauds SpaceX's Engineering Triumph, China Offers a Different Perspective

Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, has just congratulated Elon Musk on SpaceX's significant breakthrough. On an X post, Elon Musk shared a video of the 233-foot Starship rocket booster being caught as it returned to the launch pad after a test flight.

In the post, Musk wrote the caption "The tower has caught the rocket!!" referring to the groundbreaker achievement at the launch site."

Replying to his tweet, many from the aerospace community and beyond were celebrating with Musk, with some even calling this an engineering feat. Pichai for one wrote "Huge congrats, have to admit, rewatched the video many times over, incredible to see!"

SpaceX creates history

Towering at almost 121 meters, the empty starship blasted off at 7.25 am CT from SpaceX's Boca Chica, Texas launch facilities. In the second stage, the Super Heavy booster separated from the Starship at an altitude of roughly 70 km to begin its return to land.

The rocket's Super Heavy booster re-lit three of its 33 Raptor engines to slow its speedy descent back to the launch site, as it targeted the launch pad and tower it had blasted off from. The 233-foot tall Super Heavy booster fell into the launch tower's enclosing arm, hooking itself in place by tiny protruding bars under the four forward grid fins.

In the twitter video, SpaceX employees could also be seen erupting in joy, jumping and pumping their fists into the air after the booster slid into the launch tower's arms. NASA also joined in the celebration, with administrator Bill Nelson extending his congratulations.

Spacex said its engineers have "spent years preparing and months testing for the booster catch attempt, with technicians pouring tens of thousands of hours into building the infrastructure to maximise the chances of success."

Launch catches the attention of Chinese enthusiast

Excited by the footage of the Starship test flight, many Chinese netizens posted congratulatory messages online. However, there were also other Chinese space industry insiders who offered a different perspective.

A chinese rocket technician, who wanted to stay anonymous, praised Starship Team for its amazing achievement in first-stage recovery technology pioneered through the Falcon rockets, but commented that the development of the second stage is still far from perfect.

He listed several examples: the deorbit burn has not yet been executed and critical issues in aerodynamics and heat protection are still unresolved.

When it comes to China's progress in the field, Kang Guohua, professor of Aerospace Engineering at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, says that Chian's rocket recovery technology is still in its experimental phase.

However, the country is taking it slow and it doesn't want to engage in a competition with SpaceX. Instead, the country will be taking things a step at a time. For now, their next step would be to include manned lunar landings, lunar bases, asteroid sampling and Mars sample return missions.

Professor Kang also purports that it is the US who is more anxious that China might potentially achieve a lunar landing before it does, not the other way around.