SpaceX’s Starship megarocket completed a test flight on Friday, the first since Elon Musk’s company went public on Wall Street in June.
The ship splashed down in the Indian Ocean, celebrated by SpaceX employees watching from the company’s headquarters at Starbase, Texas.
“The starship is intact, floating in the ocean and transmitting telemetry!” Musk said on X.
This was the 13th flight of the world’s most powerful rocket.
Previous tests had ended with the starship catching fire splash explosionOr breaking in mid-air.
What do we know about the latest SpaceX Starship test?
Starship, which is approximately 122 meters (400 ft) long, deployed 20 Starlink satellites into suborbital space.
After briefly contacting SpaceX’s network of about 10,000 orbiting satellites, they reentered Earth’s atmosphere and burned up as planned.
SpaceX said the hour-long test “will provide critical data for the company’s satellite internet service as we prepare to expand our Starlink constellation”.
By the end of 2026, SpaceX aims to use Starship rockets to expand its Starlink network with the latest V3 satellites, which will provide coverage in remote areas where traditional cellular networks are unavailable.
Edited by: Carl Sexton
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