Source: CNBC
“SpaceX on Tuesday launched its mammoth Starship rocket, breaking a string of explosive failed attempts earlier this year to deploy its first batch of dummy Starlink satellites and notch key developmental milestones. The more-than 400-feet rocket, critical for SpaceX’s commercial dominance and NASA’s ambitions to return astronauts to the Moon, took off from the company’s Starbase facilities at 6:30 p.m. local time in Texas for a roughly one-hour nail-biting flight. Throughout the test flight — the rocket’s 10th — it made its first successful payload deployment of eight mock Starlink satellites, relit its Raptor engine in orbit and stress trialed its heat shield. … Following a state separation, the rocket’s reusable Super Heavy booster — which thrusts the Starship into the orbit — made a controlled splashdown in the Gulf Coast waters, with the spacecraft following to its own splashdown point in the Indian Ocean after completing its run.” (08/27/25)