Musk Did Reach Orbit, But His "Re-Entry" Stage Suffered An Anomaly, As The Main Capsule Reached Orbit.

Still, nice progress. The goal though, is perhaps over a decade off, now. See, the goal is boots on Mars. And for that, this failed stage / booster would need to remain in stable orbit, for an eventual crewed re-entry. Without it, the crew cannot get home.

So yes -- this is still several iterations away from any crew headed toward the Red Planet. Here's the rest, from NASA:

. . .As part of NASA’s Artemis campaign to return humans to the Moon for the benefit of all, the agency is working with SpaceX to develop the company’s Starship human landing system (HLS), which will land astronauts near the Moon’s South Pole during the Artemis III and Artemis IV missions. On March 14, SpaceX launched the third integrated flight test of its Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage, an important milestone toward providing NASA with a Starship HLS for its Artemis missions.

A complement of 33 Raptor engines, fueled by super-cooled liquid methane and liquid oxygen, powered the Super Heavy booster with Starship stacked on top, from the company’s Starbase orbital launch pad at 8:25 a.m. CDT. Starship, using six Raptor engines, separated from the Super Heavy booster employing a hot-staging technique to fire the engines before separation at approximately three minutes into the flight, in accordance with the flight plan. This was the third flight test of the integrated Super Heavy-Starship system. . . .

“Storing and transferring cryogenic propellant in orbit has never been attempted on this scale before,” said Jeremy Kenny, project manager, NASA’s Cryogenic Fluid Management Portfolio at Marshall. “But this is a game-changing technology that must be developed and matured for science and exploration missions at the Moon, Mars, and those that will venture even deeper into our solar system.”

Under NASA’s Artemis campaign, the agency will land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the lunar surface and prepare for human expeditions to Mars. . . .

Onward -- life is a. . . journey -- not a destination. Onward to St. Patrick's, on this weekend's journey. . . . smile.

नमस्ते