SpaceX finally notched a major win on Tuesday evening, pulling off what appeared to be the most successful Starship test flight to date after three consecutive failures. The company’s massive Super Heavy-Starship rocket system, the most powerful launch vehicle ever built, soared from Starbase in Texas at 6:30 p.m. Central Time (7:30 p.m. ET), and more than an hour later, both the booster and upper stage splashed down in their designated oceans as planned.
Credit: SpaceX
The flight, dubbed Integrated Flight Test-10 (IFT-10), delivered a flawless series of milestones: a smooth liftoff, proper stage separation, a controlled splashdown of the Super Heavy booster in the Gulf of Mexico, payload deployment tests, an in-space Raptor engine relight, and finally, a successful descent of the Starship upper stage into the Indian Ocean.
The achievement was especially crucial for SpaceX, which had endured a string of high-profile failures. The previous three attempts earlier this year — IFT-7 in January, IFT-8 in March, and IFT-9 in May — all ended in explosions, or “Rapid Unscheduled Disassemblies.” In June, another Starship was destroyed in a ground-based static fire test.
“This was the one they really needed to nail,” one aerospace analyst noted. “And they did.”
A Flight Full of Firsts
Tuesday’s mission marked the first time a Starship deployed a test payload: eight simulated next-generation V3 Starlink satellites. While the spacecraft was on a suborbital trajectory and the satellites burned up on re-entry, the test validated Starship’s novel PEZ-dispenser-like payload deployment system.
SpaceX also demonstrated an in-space restart of a Raptor engine, an essential capability for future lunar and interplanetary missions. Meanwhile, onboard cameras streamed dramatic views of every stage of the mission via the company’s existing Starlink satellite network, providing the public and engineers with real-time coverage.
Re-entry posed another critical test. Starship’s heat shield tiles and aerodynamic flaps endured punishing stress, with some localized burn-through and partial melting observed. SpaceX engineers, however, had deliberately stressed the system to push its limits — and despite visible damage, the vehicle maintained control through descent.
The Super Heavy booster also completed its part of the test. Instead of attempting a return-to-launch-site catch with giant mechanical arms on the launch tower, engineers opted to test its descent engines before guiding it to a Gulf splashdown. Even with one engine deliberately shut down mid-landing sequence, the booster compensated and executed the planned water landing.
The successful test comes at a pivotal moment. NASA is heavily invested in Starship as part of its Artemis program, which aims to return American astronauts to the Moon. The agency contracted SpaceX in 2021 to develop a lunar lander version of Starship — called the Human Landing System (HLS) — under a $2.9 billion agreement.
While NASA’s own Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion capsule will ferry astronauts into lunar orbit, it is Starship that will ultimately take them to the surface and back. That mission, originally targeted for 2024, has since slipped to no earlier than 2027.
After Tuesday’s flight, acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy congratulated SpaceX, calling the success “a vital step toward landing the next generation of astronauts on the Moon.”
Still, daunting technical challenges remain. Starship cannot fly directly to the Moon; it will require in-orbit refueling from propellant depots that do not yet exist. SpaceX will have to demonstrate cryogenic fuel transfer in space, launch dozens of tanker missions in rapid succession, and prove Starship’s ability to safely land on and depart from the Moon’s surface.
The Bigger Picture: Mars and Beyond
For SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk, the stakes go even higher. Musk has long envisioned using Starship for interplanetary exploration, with plans to send an uncrewed mission to Mars as early as the end of 2026. If that ambitious schedule slips, the company will need to wait until the next Earth-Mars alignment — more than two years later.
In the nearer term, Starship is expected to play a key role in deploying thousands of Starlink satellites, carrying massive payloads into orbit, and serving as a testbed for the technologies that could eventually carry humans deeper into the solar system.
Tuesday’s success won’t erase doubts about the program’s aggressive timeline. Industry experts remain skeptical that NASA’s 2027 deadline for Artemis III can be met, and concerns persist about whether SpaceX can master rapid-fire launches, propellant transfers in space, and the delicate art of landing a skyscraper-sized vehicle on the Moon’s uneven surface.
But after three straight failures, the flawless execution of IFT-10 was a clear morale boost for SpaceX’s workforce — and a much-needed reminder that the company is still moving closer, step by step, toward Musk’s vision of a multiplanetary future.
“Splashdown confirmed! Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting tenth flight test of Starship!” the company posted shortly after the mission.
For SpaceX, NASA, and the future of human spaceflight, it was more than just a splashdown. It was a turning point.
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