SpaceX’s Starship rocket finally completes successful test flight

The most powerful rocket in the world, SpaceX’s Starship, finished a successful suborbital test flight after a series of three disappointing launches that ended with fiery explosions.

SpaceX is several years in its development program for Starship, intended to be a quickly reusable and extremely powerful launch vehicle which will resume the deployment of the company’s starlink satellites and will be a central element of the Artemis Moon missions of NASA. Elon Musk, the owner of SpaceX, even said that Starship is the key to his goal of colonizing Mars.

The company uses a more common fascinated and rapid strategy in Silicon Valley than in the conservative world of space exploration. But despite the expectation of a repeated failure, a recent series of bad luck still concerned many observers.

Test flights 7, 8 and 9 all ended with a disaster for the upper stadium of Starship, which exploded or broke at the start of the school year and did not reach the earth for a safe landing. Flight 10 preparations also encountered problems when a higher stage exploded while it was responsible for propellant for a ground test.

The series of failures had led to criticism and suggestions that SpaceX is unable to set up its concept of rapid reuse. But the 10th test flight on August 26 since the base of the SpaceX in Texas was largely successful, although the one that came after two consecutive launch date cancellations.

The upper floor has reached space, has deployed eight star liaison satellites and has tested its ability to turn its engines into the void. An unexpected explosion caused damage near the engines, but nevertheless the ship finished its mission, returned to the atmosphere of the earth and slowed down for a controlled splash in the Indian Ocean in a specific place, where a buoy equipped with the camera has given crucial views of the behavior of crafts.

The Booster stadium separated from the starship and also carried out a controlled splash, this time in the Gulf of Mexico.

SpaceX did not respond to a request for comments, but said on its website that each “major objective was achieved” during the mission.

Patrick Harkness at the University of Glasgow, in the United Kingdom, says that the launch was “an incredible achievement that brings us closer to bulk transport with low cost and large-break in space”.

Despite the improvement in fortune, doubts remain that Starship can be ready in time for the crew of NASA Artemis III on the Moon, currently scheduled for 2027. SpaceX also aims to send a starship – although not linked – to March in 2026.