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SpaceX has launched its massive Starship rocket on its 10th test flight, with the successful mission breaking a streak of costly failures and reinforcing Elon Musk’s dominance of commercial space flight.
The 400ft-tall heavy-lift rocket blasted off from Starbase in South Texas — avoiding the fiery fate of a previous test in June — with the Starship spacecraft detaching from the lower-stage booster and deploying eight dummy Starlink satellites in orbit.
The spacecraft then relit its Raptor engines in space and descended through the atmosphere, singeing its heat tiles and flaps, before splashing down in the Indian Ocean. The “Super Heavy booster” also conducted a series of tests in space and successfully returned, dropping in the Gulf of Mexico.
Starship, the largest rocket system ever built, is pivotal to Musk’s ambitions to win more contracts from the Nasa space agency and transport humans to the moon and Mars. Capable of carrying up to 250 metric tonnes, its capacity is also essential to the growth of SpaceX’s Starlink network of 8,000 broadband satellites, with the newer versions far larger than those currently deployed.
The rocket first reached space in late 2023 and captured the public imagination when the reusable Super Heavy booster was caught with giant “Mechazilla” robotic arms on its return to earth in October.
Since then, SpaceX has suffered multiple setbacks that called into question the viability of the project.
In June, the rocket blew up on the launch pad due to a “major anomaly” during a test firing. Engineers were unable to open the doors and deploy the satellites on the ninth test flight in May and then lost control of the upper stage on re-entry.
Two previous flights had also ended with the rocket spinning out of control and exploding in the atmosphere above the Caribbean, showering the area below with debris. The Federal Aviation Administration grounded future launches for months after.
The 10th flight was initially scheduled for Sunday, but was first postponed due to a liquid oxygen leak and then bad weather.
SpaceX has built a reputation for taking an aggressive approach to development, losing at least a dozen rockets on its way to launching a total of more than 500.
The strategy has paid off, with Musk cementing a dominant position in the commercial space market based on the success of its Falcon 9 medium-lift vehicle. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and traditional players Boeing and Lockheed Martin have fallen far short of SpaceX’s launch rate and technological innovation.
Falcon and the financial success of its Starlink business have spurred SpaceX to pursue a $400bn valuation in its latest employee share sale, the FT reported last month.
SpaceX is also expected to benefit from an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump this month, which sets out plans to ease regulations for commercial space operators.
The order represents a climbdown by Trump, who had threatened to cancel SpaceX’s government contracts after a bitter falling out with Musk over the summer’s Republican spending bill.
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