SpaceX has completed a largely successful test flight of Starship V3, the largest and most powerful rocket in history.
The uncrewed rocket blasted off from SpaceX’s Starbase in Texas at around 17:30 local time (22:30 GMT) on Friday (22 May), just days after the company announced plans for a record-breaking $1.75 trillion Wall Street listing.
After reaching space, Starship deployed 20 mock satellites before splashing down in the Indian Ocean around an hour later in a planned end to the test.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk celebrated the launch in a post on X.
“Congratulations @SpaceX team on an epic first Starship V3 launch & landing! You scored a goal for humanity,” he wrote.
Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX, also congratulated employees.
“Congrats and a huge thank you to the SpaceX team that always delivers,” she wrote on X.
“This was an incredible first flight of a brand new vehicle. Our collective future flying amongst the stars has become so much closer,” Shotwell added.
The first attempt to launch the rocket on Thursday (21 May) was postponed due to a problem with the launch tower.
While Friday’s launch met most of its objectives, there were a few issues with the test flight.
Starship lost one of its six engines early in the flight, and the Super Heavy booster failed to complete a planned boost-back burn after separating from Starship.
SpaceX intends to complete its first Moon landing in 2028 as part of NASA’s $3 billion Artemis programme, which aims to return American astronauts to the Moon.
The U.S. is locked in a space race with China, which intends to complete a crewed lunar landing of its own in 2030.
Beijing intends to launch its Shenzhou-23 crewed spaceship on Sunday, an important milestone towards its lunar ambitions.
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