Following its major initial public offering, SpaceX’s massive Starship vehicle has carried out its first significant test flight, successfully lifting off, entering orbit, and deploying a new generation of upgraded Starlink satellites.
At 5:51 PM local time on Friday, the Super Heavy booster, carrying the Starship, launched from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in southern Texas.
The Starship is central to Elon Musk’s core development vision: expanding the Starlink satellite communications network, enabling crewed lunar missions and deeper space travel, and building an in-orbit data center. However, the rocket's development has been fraught with challenges, including multiple explosions, equipment failures, and ongoing project delays.
Several previous launch delays triggered a sell-off in SpaceX stock, highlighting investor sensitivity to the inherent risks of the company's "test-fly, fix, iterate" development model. During regular U.S. trading hours on Friday, the stock closed down 3%, bringing its cumulative loss over the past month to roughly 25%, well below the IPO price of $135.
Media reported on Thursday that SpaceX is betting heavily on the Starship program, having stopped accepting new reservations for Falcon rocket launches dedicated to satellite operators for post-2028 missions. The Falcon series has been the primary workhorse of the global space launch industry for years.
This was the 13th test flight for the Starship.
During the launch phase, all 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy booster ignited, propelling the Starship toward space and ultimately achieving near-orbital velocity.
Approximately six minutes after liftoff, the booster executed a planned landing in the Gulf of Mexico, prompting cheers from the ground control center. Compared to the previous test flight, the booster’s performance was significantly improved; the prior flight saw the booster spin out of control and one engine shut down prematurely.
SpaceX engineer Nathan Komissariat stated, "The Super Heavy booster has executed another perfect recovery landing, and the imagery is absolutely stunning."
For this mission, SpaceX did not attempt the catch-and-recovery technique using mechanical arms, which was successfully demonstrated during a 2024 test flight and is a key element for rapid rocket reuse.
While in orbit, the Starship released 20 Starlink satellites, prompting the ground crew to chant "USA." These satellites will deploy their solar arrays and connect to the global Starlink network via laser communication links.
Approximately 20 minutes after their release, the satellites will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and be completely incinerated.
About an hour after launch, the Starship is scheduled to splash down in the Indian Ocean.
Musk’s company has designed the Starship to be a fully reusable vehicle, a technology no other aerospace company has achieved. Both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship spacecraft are designed to return to Earth intact after each launch for reuse on subsequent missions. SpaceX has invested over $15 billion in the Starship’s development.
The third-generation Starship has been specifically optimized for reusability, and Musk has predicted that SpaceX could achieve full and rapid reusability of the Starship by the end of this year.
NASA has signed a contract with SpaceX worth approximately $4 billion for the Starship, with plans to use the vehicle to land astronauts on the moon as early as 2028. To achieve a crewed lunar landing, SpaceX must master in-orbit refueling technology, conduct over a dozen stable Starship launches, and verify crewed flight safety. Given that the vehicle has yet to complete a single full orbital mission, these tasks are extremely challenging.
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