Today's Edition
(AGENCIES)
A high-stakes test of SpaceX’s Starship rocket delivered a win for Elon Musk’s rocket company Tuesday as the system’s giant rocket booster and spacecraft returned to Earth intact.
The uncrewed, experimental rocket took off around 6:30pm Central time from a launchpad in South Texas, and successfully separated with the spacecraft minutes later. The booster then powered down over the Gulf of Mexico, where it splashed into the water; SpaceX did not try for the dramatic reusable landing it achieved last year.
After separating from the booster and rising above the atmosphere the spacecraft opened up and dropped off eight dummy satellites, marking the first time it used the release system for deploying satellites into orbit. It later passed back through Earth’s atmosphere, suffering some visible damage on the way before splashing down in the Indian Ocean.
The test flight came after SpaceX scrubbed its launch two days in a row, first to deal with a ground systems issue and the next day for weather.
Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, central to NASA’s goal of returning astronauts to the moon, an endeavor that has earned SpaceX billions of dollars in government contract funding. SpaceX also wants to use it to launch more satellites for its Starlink internet system, which now accounts for most of the company’s revenue.
Starship’s first test flight two years ago damaged its South Texas launchpad and sent debris hurtling down onto its nearby South Texas beach.
SpaceX prevailed last October with its fifth attempt, as Starship’s massive booster powered down alongside its launch tower before being caught by two converging "chopstick” arms, demonstrating it can reuse such a large rocket.
That success proved short-lived, however, as the company has experienced dramatic failures in four recent tests in 2025.
In the ninth and latest flight, SpaceX lost the rocket booster and spacecraft. The company concluded that an in-flight experiment with the rocket’s orientation had put too much pressure on the rocket booster, and an equipment failure on the spacecraft’s fuel system led both parts of Starship to explode.
Then, in late June, the rocket itself exploded on its test stand in an accident the company attributed to a damaged component.
The string of recent failures puts more pressure on SpaceX to meet the timeline set out for it to beat China to the moon through NASA’s Artemis program.
