![SpaceX successfully launches — and lands — Starship prototype in milestone test flight](https://cbsnews2.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2021/05/05/0c33ca51-d3a0-4961-8f69-7b71657f911a/thumbnail/1200x630/658431348a16e8f2048d7331e26112b9/050521-launch1.jpg)
SpaceX successfully launches — and lands — Starship prototype in milestone test flight
CBSN
SpaceX launched its latest Starship prototype Wednesday evening, sending the methane-fueled rocket up to an altitude of about 6 miles. The craft then flipped over on its side in a now-familiar "belly-flop" maneuver and plunged back to Earth, righting itself and restarting its engines to stick an on-target touchdown.
The previous four test flights of a Starship prototype were only partially successful, all of them ending with spectacular explosions, either before, during or just after touchdown. But the current prototype, known as SN15, appeared to pull off its first flight in fine fashion, a welcome milestone for SpaceX and for NASA, which is counting on a future variant of the rocket to carry astronauts to and from the surface of the moon in the agency's Artemis program.![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20250214202746.jpg)
Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a high-stakes meeting at this year's Munich Security conference to discuss the Trump administration's efforts to end the war in Ukraine. Vance said the U.S. seeks a "durable" peace, while Zelenskyy expressed the desire for extensive discussions to prepare for any end to the conflict.
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Washington — The Trump administration on Thursday intensified its sweeping efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce, the nation's largest employer, by ordering agencies to lay off nearly all probationary employees who hadn't yet gained civil service protection - potentially affecting hundreds of thousands of workers.
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It was Labor Day weekend 2003 when Matt Scribner, a local horse farrier and trainer who also competes in long-distance horse races, was on his usual ride in a remote part of the Sierra Nevada foothills — just a few miles northeast of Auburn, California —when he noticed a freshly dug hole along the trail that piqued his curiosity.