SpaceX achieved the first successful touchdown of its prototype Starship rocket during the latest test flight of the next-generation launch vehicle in south Texas yesterday, after four previous landing attempts ended in explosions.<br />”&nbsp;<br />”The feat marked a key milestone for the private rocket company of Elon Musk in its development of a resusable heavy-lift launch vehicle to eventually carry astronauts and large cargo payloads to the moon and Mars.&nbsp; The Starship SN15 blasted off from the SpaceX launch site in Boca Chica, Texas, along the Gulf Coast.<br />”&nbsp;<br />”Maneuvering itself back into vertical position under rocket thrust as it approached the ground, the 16-story, three-engine vehicle descended to a gentle touchdown on its landing gear.<br />”&nbsp;<br />”<span style="color: #222222;">The flight came on the 60th anniversary of the first spaceflight by an American astronaut Alan Shepard's launch on a 15-minute suborbital mission atop NASA's Mercury-Redstone rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida.</span><br />