SpaceX successfully launched another test flight of its massive Starship rocket on Monday, completing a journey halfway around the world while releasing mock satellites along the way.
The world’s largest and most powerful rocket lifted off from the southern tip of Texas at Starbase, SpaceX’s private launch site near the Mexican border. After liftoff, the rocket’s booster separated and made a controlled descent into the Gulf of Mexico, as planned. The Starship spacecraft then skimmed the edge of space before descending into the Indian Ocean. None of the hardware was recovered.
“Hey, welcome back to Earth, Starship,” SpaceX commentator Dan Huot announced, as cheers erupted from employees at mission control. “What a day.”
This marked the 11th full-scale test flight of the Starship system. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk envisions the reusable rocket as key to transporting humans to Mars. For NASA, Starship plays a more immediate role — it is central to the agency’s Artemis program to land astronauts on the moon, serving as the vehicle that will carry them from lunar orbit down to the surface and back.
Unlike previous launches, Musk stepped outside to watch the flight in person, describing it as “much more visceral.”
The previous Starship flight in August had been hailed as a success following a series of failures. Monday’s mission followed a similar trajectory, but included additional in-flight tests, particularly during reentry over the Indian Ocean. These maneuvers are part of preparations for future landings back at the launch site.
As with the last test, Starship was equipped with eight mock satellites simulating the company’s Starlink internet satellites. The full flight lasted just over an hour.
NASA’s acting administrator, Sean Duffy, praised the progress made, calling the launch “another major step toward landing Americans on the moon’s south pole” in a post on X.
SpaceX is also adapting its launch facilities at Cape Canaveral, Florida, to handle Starship missions in addition to the smaller Falcon rockets currently used for NASA crew and cargo missions to the International Space Station.
