{"id":649421,"date":"2026-05-23T08:19:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T06:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=649421"},"modified":"2026-05-23T08:37:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T06:37:28","slug":"new-starship-completes-first-successful-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/science\/649421-new-starship-completes-first-successful-mission.html","title":{"rendered":"New Starship completes first successful mission"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SpaceX\u2019s upgraded Starship successfully deployed mock satellites and returned to Earth largely unscathed, though its booster spun out of control and broke apart over the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gigantic rocket\u2019s twelfth major test flight was a successful, if slightly rough and incomplete, debut of the vehicle, which is critical to Elon Musk\u2019s efforts to scale his rocket business into an artificial intelligence and satellite communications empire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two-tier rocket system, made up of the Super Heavy Booster and the Starship spacecraft, thundered off the launchpad at SpaceX\u2019s Starbase facility in South Texas at 5:30 p.m. local time on Friday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few minutes into the flight, the Super Heavy booster separated from the Starship spacecraft as planned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the booster didn\u2019t perform an expected engine burn and fell out of control as it came back to the Gulf of Mexico.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just before the vehicle splashed down, SpaceX lost communication with the booster, indicating that it may have broken up.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the six engines on Starship also shut down early while it climbed to space. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the problem, Starship still managed to reach space and deploy 20 dummy Starlink satellites, designed to mimic future payloads.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty incredible to see this happening live from space now,\u201d SpaceX employee Kate Tice told viewers on a broadcast as applause and chants of \u201cUSA, USA\u201d erupted from employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vehicle also released two specialised satellites to test new Starlink hardware and scan Starship\u2019s heat shield. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of the satellites, however, should fall back to Earth, burning up in the atmosphere as expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starship then hurtled through Earth\u2019s atmosphere, braking from roughly 26,300 kilometers per hour while in space, before maneuvering itself and splashing down in the Indian Ocean. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It then promptly exploded, though its recovery from the water was always unlikely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were expecting this reentry to be super spicy,\u201d Tice said, describing how the ship\u2019s heat shield tiles withstood the plunge.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long to-do list awaits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

SpaceX still must demonstrate and master many novel technologies between now and\u00a0a Moon landing<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 notably, the ability to refuel Starship while in orbit and launch the vehicle roughly a dozen times or more in a row. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a daunting to-do list when SpaceX still has not completed a full orbital mission with Starship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The closely watched flight was a key demonstration of upgrades from previously launched Starship prototypes, including\u00a0increasing the rocket\u2019s power and capability<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

SpaceX has sunk more than $15 billion into developing its massive rocket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It comes the same week SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies,\u00a0filed publicly<\/a>\u00a0for an initial public offering that could happen as soon as June. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The filing revealed billions in losses and the super-voting share plan allowing Musk to keep the company\u00a0under his control<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company has been gearing up<\/a> for a public offering that seeks to raise as much as $75 billion at a valuation of potentially $2 trillion. Details of the IPO, including the size and timing, could still change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fueling its valuation, SpaceX has proposed a number of ambitious initiatives that require Starship to be fully operational, including launching as many as one million satellites into orbit to serve as AI data centers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur ability to execute our growth strategy is highly dependent on Starship,\u201d SpaceX wrote<\/a> in its prospectus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Designed to carry cargo and humans to distant destinations in space, Starship is also meant to unlock Musk\u2019s ultimate goal of starting a human settlement on Mars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rocket is vital for lofting huge numbers of satellites for SpaceX\u2019s\u00a0fast-growing<\/a>\u00a0Starlink internet business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company also holds $4 billion worth of contracts with NASA to land astronauts on the lunar surface, and SpaceX has its own plans to start a moon base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But before all that, SpaceX needs to show significant progress with Starship\u2019s development, which has been\u00a0marred by explosive setbacks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been\u00a0roughly seven months\u00a0since SpaceX last launched a Starship mission in October of 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SpaceX\u2019s upgraded Starship successfully deployed mock satellites and returned to Earth largely unscathed, though its booster spun out of control and broke apart over the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":649425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31750],"tags":[11373,14175,85641,82565,761,77492,37276,11375,60889,105443],"class_list":["post-649421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","tag-elon-musk","tag-mars","tag-mars-missions","tag-moon-missions","tag-nasa","tag-rocket-launches","tag-space-travel","tag-spacex","tag-starship","tag-starship-v3"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649421"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649421"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":649429,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649421\/revisions\/649429"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}