Elon Musk's giant Starship rocket completes tenth test flight

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• After several setbacks, the largest rocket system ever built in space history has completed a tenth test flight largely according to plan.
• Starship took off from the SpaceX spaceport in the US state of Texas, flew through space for a while and then landed in the Indian Ocean around an hour later.
• For the first time, this test also succeeded in simulating the launching of satellites.

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After several setbacks, the largest rocket system ever built in the history of space travel has completed a tenth test flight largely according to plan. The Starship, developed by tech billionaire Elon Musk's private space company SpaceX, took off from the company's spaceport in the US state of Texas, flew through space for a while and then landed in the Indian Ocean around an hour later. For the first time, this test also succeeded in simulating the launching of satellites.

It was an "exciting tenth test flight", SpaceX announced on the online platform X, which also reports to Musk. "Great work from the SpaceX team," wrote Musk. The test flight originally planned for Sunday (local time) had previously been postponed twice by one day each - first to fix a fault with the ground systems, then due to the weather.

Starship to go to Mars one day

The rocket system is larger than the Statue of Liberty in New York. It consists of two parts that separate after launch: The Super Heavy booster, which is around 70 meters long, and the upper stage - also called Starship - which measures around 50 meters.

Both parts are designed so that they can be reused after returning to Earth. The US space agency NASA wants to use Starship to send astronauts to the moon, while SpaceX is pursuing the goal of one day reaching Mars.

The rocket system was tested for the first time in April 2023 - and exploded completely after just a few minutes. In further tests, the upper stage reached space and made a controlled landing in the Indian Ocean. Most recently, however, several test flights fell well short of expectations.