Watch: SpaceX Starship Launches Successfully

SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket completed its 10th test flight Tuesday night in its most successful blast off yet, following a slew of setbacks and past tests that ended with the spacecraft exploding in the air.

The 400-foot-tall Starship rocket finally took off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Texas at 7:30 p.m. EST after having to abort the mission two nights in a row due to weather and tech issues.

The Starship’s historic voyage saw the rocket blast off without a hitch before it splashed down in the Indian Ocean mostly intact, save for rear flaps burned during reentry.

During its journey, the Starship soared a couple of hundred kilometers above Earth as it successfully detached its booster and distributed all eight dummy satellites into orbit for the first time since the ninth test’s fiery descent.

Tuesday’s test also marked the second-ever successful Raptor engine relaunch.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) cleared the way for the latest test to proceed following a probe of the ninth launch, which saw the Starship rocket fail to deploy dummy satellites and burn up as it plunged back toward Earth’s atmosphere.

SpaceX officials said they identified the cause of the issue as a failure in the main fuel tank, which was patched ahead of further attempts.

Eager space gurus watching the feed live from Starbase, Texas erupted in repeated applause after each satellite was deployed during Tuesday’s run.

The descent back down to Earth posed a few more challenges as the crew sought to “intentionally stress” the rocket and test its capabilities, namely the strength of its heat shield.

The aft skirt, part of the Raptor engine, took a hit on the way down, sending a flurry of debris around the internal base. It didn’t appear to have a major detrimental effect on the rest of the rocket, though, as it managed a relatively smooth landing in the Indian Ocean.

The long-awaited launch came after Sunday and Monday’s attempts were both postponed.

Sunday’s anticipated takeoff was nixed before the livestream even started due to a liquid oxygen leak.

Its next attempt, rescheduled for Monday, was thwarted by inclement weather.

Two minutes before Monday’s scheduled launch, the team noted that they would be holding at T-40 since they were “red on the range for weather.” Every other parameter, though, fell in the “green range.”

By Tuesday, all checks fell into the “green range” and the rocket was cleared for launch on time.

The 10th launch also comes more than two months after the spacecraft exploded into an enormous fireball during a routine test.

Prior to the failure of the ninth launch in May, the company saw its Starship rockets explode over the Atlantic Ocean during its seventh and eighth flights in January and March, respectively.

Despite the series of floundered attempts, the ninth test did see the first successful reuse of the Super Heavy booster rocket, showing signs of progress toward CEO Elon Musk’s desire to create a fully reusable rocket system.

Starship is designed to be fully and rapidly reusable, saving SpaceX significantly on cost and resources, which would aid the company in reaching its ultimate goal of pioneering travel to the Moon and Mars.

SpaceX has been tapped to handle NASA’s upcoming Artemis 3 mission to return to the Moon in 2027, with Musk eyeing his own launch for Mars come 2026 when Earth and the red planet are at their closest orbit.