SpaceX launches massive Starship rocket in first test flight since IPO

SpaceX It launched its massive Starship rocket Friday evening from the company town and its launch facility in Starbase, Texas, on its 13th test flight and the first since the company’s record IPO last month.

The rocket’s Super Heavy booster separated from the Starship spacecraft about two minutes into the flight and made a controlled descent into the Gulf. The rocket’s upper stage made a “soft splash” into the Indian Ocean. SpaceX employees described the test flight as “lucky number 13” during a live broadcast of the event.

Elon Musk’s aerospace and defense contractor designed Starship, the largest rocket ever built or flown, to be completely reusable and carry more cargo into orbit at less cost. Among other tasks, Starship is vital to the company’s goal of greatly expanding its Starlink satellite network.

About 18 minutes into Friday’s test flight, SpaceX successfully placed 20 of its new Starlink V3 satellites into orbit; this was the first chance to see how the company performed in flight. The satellites were planned to burn in about 20 minutes.

The new satellites, produced at the SpaceX facility in Redmond, Washington, are being built to be larger and more powerful than Starlink’s previous satellites. They are also equipped with solar panels that produce twice as much power as previous generations, a business analyst from SpaceX explained on livestream.

SpaceX is currently developing Starmind satellites, which the company plans to launch and eventually use as orbital data centers.

In addition to using its largest rockets to launch new and larger satellites, SpaceX also wants to use its Starship rocket to bring U.S. astronauts back to the surface of the moon and eventually power human missions to Mars. The company is preparing Starship for a major NASA test flight next year.

Friday’s test flight was the second for Starship V3, the latest version of the rocket.

In a post about X, owned by SpaceX, the company said It postponed an earlier test flight scheduled for Thursday “due to weather conditions.” It previously conducted a test flight on July 16 after the rocket’s booster triggered a hold that “shut down the engines as soon as they started firing,” a SpaceX employee said during a livestream of the event.

Shares of SpaceX have fallen in four of the last five weeks and are down 43% since their peak close on June 16.

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