SpaceX successfully completed the tenth test of the Starship mega rocket

The latest test of SpaceX's Starship mega rocket has successfully concluded. The test included the first-ever deployment of a test payload into space. Starship lifted off from SpaceX's South Texas launch site, Starbase, on Tuesday evening shortly after 6.30pm local time, and then launched eight satellite simulators into space before ditching as planned in the Indian Ocean after just over an hour of flight. This was the tenth demonstration test for the world's largest and most powerful rocket. Also successful was the return of the vehicle's booster, Super Heavy Booster, which ditched in the Atlantic after testing a sequence of landing engines.

SpaceX hopes to use Starships for future missions to the Moon and Mars. Nasa has ordered two Starships to land astronauts on the Moon by the end of this decade, while the ultimate goal of SpaceX's ceo Elon Musk is Mars. No crew members were on board the demonstration launch. Before the ditching, Starship continued to orbit the Earth, going from daylight in Texas to night and back to daylight again. Before the vehicle hit the waves, its engines fired, reversing its position so that it entered the water in an upright position with the nose cone pointing upwards.

The successful test came after a year of setbacks. The January and March tests had ended minutes after take-off, with a shower of debris in the ocean. And the last test in May, the ninth attempt, had ended when the spacecraft fell out of control and broke apart. SpaceX subsequently redesigned the Super Heavy booster with larger, stronger fins for greater stability, according to a company post on X this month. The first Starship had exploded minutes after its maiden test flight in 2023. SpaceX's first batch of Starlink satellites was launched in 2019 from a Falcon rocket that took off from Cape Canaveral.