SpaceX has conducted its tenth launch of the super-heavy Starship rocket. Unlike several previous tests, this one was successful.
As part of its recent mission, SpaceX tested Block 2, a larger and more powerful version of Starlink. Its three previous flights, which took place in the first half of 2025, ended in failure. Another Starship of this modification exploded on the test stand during fire testing.
Since then, SpaceX specialists have done a very solid job of fixing the errors, making a number of changes to the rocket’s design. And it brought results. After several postponements, Starship was launched on August 26. Despite the shutdown of one of its engines, the Super Heavy booster successfully completed its flight segment. After separation, it performed a return maneuver. During the descent, engineers conducted an experiment simulating the shutdown of one of the three central engines during landing and its replacement with a backup power unit. It was a success. After that, Starship was sunk in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico/Gulf of America.
As for Starship, the spacecraft was launched onto a predetermined suborbital trajectory. During the flight, it successfully deployed eight mock-ups of the new generation of Starlink satellites and restarted one of the Raptor engines.
The final test was entering the atmosphere. Despite the fact that SpaceX engineers deliberately removed a number of heat shield tiles from the spacecraft, which led to several damages during the flight, Starship successfully completed this stage and splashed down in the Indian Ocean. Immediately afterwards, the spacecraft exploded, which, however, no longer mattered much.
This success was a long-awaited breakthrough for SpaceX, ending a series of unsuccessful Starship tests that had been ongoing since the beginning of the year. It is also very important for the Artemis program, which has recently been under considerable pressure from China, which plans to send people to the Moon before the end of this decade.
It should be noted that SpaceX is actively working on creating a new, even more powerful modification of Starship, designated Block 3. The company hopes to launch it for the first time before the end of this year.
