On Sunday, SpaceX conducted the fifth test flight of its Starship rocket — the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built — and for the first time landed the Super Heavy Booster (used to power the Starship into orbit) back on the launch platform. Fox News interviewed Jason Sebastian, Executive Vice President of Market Operations at QuesTek Innovations, about the company’s role in developing the materials that made the groundbreaking event possible. Below are some highlights from the interview.

On the importance of advanced materials in SpaceX’s Starship rocket: 

“My excitement comes from the material science that goes into this. … SpaceX is a real innovator when it comes to materials and metallurgy. There are a number of new custom, bespoke materials that [SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s] team developed for this rocket ship, and QuesTek assisted them. So there’s the shiny stainless steel that everyone can see on the outside … but there are some other advanced materials in the rocket engine itself that have enabled this big achievement.”

On the significance of reusability in aerospace: 

“The reusability is not to be underemphasized. It’s so huge. The big economic part of this whole rocket are the engines and the ability to bring those back down to earth, and for them to not have gone through a huge cycle of burn and wear, and to be able to reuse them. … That ability to do that is incredible, economically, and in terms of getting us to the next frontier.”

On the innovations within SpaceX’s Raptor engines: 

“Those engines are a new configuration, the Raptor engines, and they use a new type of fuel, methane. So their engines themselves are a milestone … Watching it stick the landing, … it was quite amazing.”