SpaceX launched its massive Starship rocket from Texas on Friday in its 13th test flight and the first since the company’s record-breaking initial public offering last month, putting the vehicle through another major test as Elon Musk’s space company works toward routine launches and eventual missions to the Moon and Mars.
The roughly 400-foot Starship rocket system lifted off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in South Texas at about 6:50 p.m. ET. The mission marked the company’s latest attempt to demonstrate progress toward developing a fully reusable launch system capable of carrying people and cargo into space.
During the flight, the rocket deployed 20 upgraded Starlink V3 satellites into a suborbital trajectory. The satellites briefly connected with SpaceX’s existing network of roughly 10,000 Starlink satellites before following the planned trajectory into Earth’s atmosphere and burning up.
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The Starship’s Super Heavy booster separated from the upper-stage spacecraft roughly two minutes after liftoff. The booster subsequently made a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, while the Starship spacecraft continued toward its planned landing in the Indian Ocean.
The mission comes after a series of delays and setbacks. An earlier launch attempt in July was aborted at the last moment after some of the rocket’s 33 engines failed to ignite, prompting SpaceX to postpone the flight.
Investors are closely watching the latest test following SpaceX’s record IPO. The company went public last month in what has been described as the largest IPO in history, bringing increased market attention to its ambitious plans for Starship, Starlink and other businesses.
Starship is central to Musk’s long-term plans for space exploration, including missions to the Moon and Mars. The rocket is also important to NASA’s Artemis programme, which plans to use a Starship-based lunar lander for future crewed missions.
The company has spent years developing the system through an iterative testing programme, with each flight designed to gather data and improve the vehicle’s performance. Full reusability remains one of SpaceX’s key objectives, as the company seeks to reduce the cost of launching payloads into orbit and increase launch frequency.
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The latest flight also demonstrated the potential role of Starship in SpaceX’s broader satellite business. The deployment of the upgraded Starlink V3 satellites allowed the company to test the next generation of spacecraft designed to provide greater bandwidth and faster internet speeds.
The test flight represents another step in SpaceX’s effort to turn Starship from an experimental vehicle into an operational launch system. The company is seeking to move toward more frequent launches while improving the reliability and recovery of both the Super Heavy booster and Starship spacecraft.
For investors, the performance of Starship will remain closely tied to the company’s broader valuation and long-term growth expectations following its public listing. The latest flight provided another high-profile test of SpaceX’s technology as the company begins its first phase of public-market scrutiny.