August 27, 2025

Hold on tight! SpaceX’s giant Starship rocket did something incredible on August 26, 2025. Out of its base in South Texas, Starbase, the Super Heavy booster carried the Starship spacecraft on its 10th test flight, and guess what? It made history by launching eight dummy satellites into space! The journey began just after 6:30 pm from Texas. This huge rocket, the biggest and most powerful ever built, is what SpaceX and NASA plan to use to send astronauts back to the moon. Although no humans were on board yet, this test showed how ready Starship is becoming. After its spectacular blastoff, the Super Heavy booster performed a smooth landing-burn engine maneuver and splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean, as planned. The Starship itself didn’t just jump into the ocean right away. It took a magical tour around the Earth, moving from daylight over Texas through night and back to day, orbiting our planet before safely landing upright in the Indian Ocean. Its engines fired at the right moment to flip the craft for a perfect splashdown with the nose cone pointing up – a tricky move done just right! SpaceX proudly tweeted, "Splashdown confirmed! Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting tenth flight test of Starship!" Why is this so exciting? Because SpaceX had some bumpy rides earlier this year. In January and March, tests ended quickly after liftoff with wreckage falling into the ocean. The May test was rough too, as the spacecraft lost control and broke apart. To fix this, SpaceX redesigned the Super Heavy booster with bigger, stronger fins for better stability, showing they learn fast. The very first Starship test flight in 2023 ended with a big explosion, so this success feels like a sweet victory. NASA is betting big on these rockets, ordering two Starships to help astronauts land on the moon by the end of this decade. And Elon Musk, the SpaceX chief, dreams even bigger – Mars is the ultimate target! From launching Starlink satellites back in 2019 on Falcon rockets to today’s Starship soaring and delivering its first test payload, SpaceX is rewriting space history. This 10th flight is just the beginning of a new, dazzling space adventure!

Read More at Thehindu →

Tags: Spacex, Starship, Super heavy booster, Nasa, Moon mission, Satellite deployment,