Elon Musk was nowhere to be seen as SpaceX's Starship mega-rocket finally flew into space, cruised above Earth, and plummeted back through the atmosphere on Thursday.
Musk has been quite hands-on in the Starship-Super Heavy launch system's development and testing process.
He was in the control room for SpaceX's first two attempts to launch the Starship-Super Heavy rocket system to space last year, in April and November. He even brought his son, X Æ A-12, for the November attempt.
On both of those previous test flights, Starship exploded in mid-air.
As Starship finally proved it could fly to the heavens, though, Musk was nowhere to be seen on SpaceX's livestream of the flight, which periodically showed the control room.
According to a bot that famously tracks Musk's private jet, the aircraft landed in New Jersey just hours before Starship launched.
Musk seemed to be watching closely though, as he posted about the flight live on X, the platform previously known as Twitter.
He posted a "Congratulations" to the team once Starship reached its orbital goal.
Starship reached orbital velocity!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 14, 2024
Congratulations @SpaceX team!!
Musk has big ambitions for Starship. He hopes the mega-rocket will eventually fly people and cargo to Mars to build a human settlement there.
By all accounts, this successful launch was a dream come true for Musk. But apparently, it wasn't an achievement he wished to celebrate in the public eye.
March 19, 2024: This story was updated to clarify the nature of Starship's third spaceflight attempt, which sought to cruise through space before falling back to Earth.
