Elon Musk’s company SpaceX successfully launched its Starship megarocket on Tuesday after two failed attempts in the past two days. This was the rocket’s 10th integrated test flight.
The launch happened at 6:30 pm local time (2330 GMT) from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Texas. The company streamed the entire event live on its official X (Twitter) account, showing the rocket’s smooth liftoff.
Liftoff of Starship! pic.twitter.com/d6d2hHgMa0
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 26, 2025
During the flight, Starship’s Raptor engines fired up successfully during the hot-staging separation—the crucial moment when the upper stage separates from the massive 232-foot Super Heavy booster. The booster was directed to land in the Gulf of Mexico to test a new engine landing system.
The upper stage, Starship, continued its journey into space before re-entering Earth’s atmosphere and safely splashing down in the Indian Ocean. Despite facing extreme heat during re-entry, the rocket completed its planned mission.
Splashdown confirmed! Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting tenth flight test of Starship! pic.twitter.com/5sbSPBRJBP
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 27, 2025
SpaceX celebrated the achievement with a post on X:
“Splashdown confirmed! Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting tenth flight test of Starship!”
This success came after two earlier delays:
- On Sunday, the launch was stopped just 15 minutes before liftoff due to a ground system fuel leak.
- On Monday, bad weather forced another last-minute cancellation.
Finally, on Tuesday, the world’s most powerful rocket took flight and achieved a key milestone in SpaceX’s ambitious space exploration plans.
