Elon Musk’s SpaceX triumphantly landed its Starship test vehicle unscathed on the fifth attempt on Wednesday, advancing efforts to prepare it for future flights and landings on the moon and Mars. The unscrewed 16-story rocket ship was launched from the company’s facility in southern Texas and landed back on its pad after a six-minute flight, climbing as high as 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). A small fire broke out at the base of the rocket after landing, but was extinguished after a few minutes.The mission continues a frenetic period of launches by closely held SpaceX for government, military and commercial clients in recent weeks, including the successful transit of astronauts to and from the International Space Station.The experimental design of the Starship supports the recent $2.9 billion NASA contract win by SpaceX to provide an interstellar lander for astronauts later in the decade. The two losing bidders, Jeff Bezo’s Blue Origin LLC and LEidos Holdings Inc., filed official protests over the award which they stated that it was driven in part by lack of funding to hire more than one contractor.