SpaceX’s Starship rocket completed its 10th test flight on August 26, 2025, launching from Texas and splashing down in the Indian Ocean mostly intact after multiple failed attempts.

After a string of fiery setbacks and months of nail-biting anticipation, SpaceX’s Starship rocket finally delivered on its enormous promise Tuesday night, pulling off its most successful mission to date.

The massive spacecraft — standing nearly 400 feet tall and representing CEO Elon Musk’s boldest vision yet for interplanetary travel — launched cleanly from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, at 7:30 p.m.

EST on August 26 before soaring into the skies, releasing its payload, and splashing down mostly intact in the Indian Ocean. For Musk and his team, it was not just a victory — it was vindication.

The 10th test flight marked the first time that Starship not only survived reentry without disintegrating but also managed to deploy all eight dummy satellites successfully into orbit.

For a program dogged by catastrophic failures, aborted launches, and spectacular explosions, this mission was a breakthrough.

“We’re green across the board,” a SpaceX engineer declared moments before liftoff, sparking cheers from workers and thousands of space enthusiasts watching the live feed.

Within minutes of launch, applause erupted again as Starship cleanly separated from its Super Heavy booster — a milestone that has repeatedly gone wrong in past attempts.

But success didn’t come easily. The historic flight came after two consecutive days of postponements. On Sunday, the rocket was grounded before the livestream even began after teams detected a liquid oxygen leak.

On Monday, the mission was scrubbed again — this time just minutes before liftoff, as the countdown froze at T-40 seconds.

“We’re red on the range for weather,” an engineer explained, noting storms rolling over the Texas coast. By Tuesday evening, however, every parameter had switched into the green range, and this time, nothing stood in Starship’s way.

As it climbed hundreds of kilometers above Earth, Starship carried out a flawless orbital insertion.

The dummy satellites, designed to simulate payload deployment, were released one by one, each release triggering another round of clapping from SpaceX employees monitoring the mission in real time.

It was the first time Starship had completed such a sequence without incident, following a disastrous ninth test in May when the spacecraft’s fuel tank ruptured mid-flight, sending the rocket plummeting back toward Earth in a ball of fire.

Tuesday’s flight also marked the second-ever successful relaunch of the Raptor engine, SpaceX’s next-generation methane-fueled engine that is critical for Musk’s vision of rapid reusability.

The company has touted Raptor as the key to driving down costs and enabling multiple launches per week, but reliability has been a major stumbling block.

Seeing the engine roar back to life after separation reassured many who had begun to question the viability of Musk’s timetable for Mars exploration.

Still, the descent back through Earth’s atmosphere was far from routine. Engineers openly admitted they wanted to “intentionally stress” the rocket during reentry, pushing the limits of its heat shield and testing its tolerance for punishment.

As Starship plunged back through the atmosphere, flames licked its steel surface and cameras captured its rear flaps beginning to char.

The aft skirt, part of the Raptor engine structure, sustained heavy damage, scattering debris inside the rocket’s lower section. Yet, against the odds, Starship held together and executed a relatively smooth splashdown in the Indian Ocean — battered but intact.

The successful landing drew whoops and applause from the SpaceX control room, a sharp contrast to the collective groans that have defined so many of Starship’s earlier flights.

In January and March, the seventh and eighth test launches both ended in explosions over the Atlantic Ocean. The ninth test in May at least managed the first successful reuse of the Super Heavy booster, but the spacecraft itself once again failed to survive reentry.

For critics, these repeated mishaps underscored the audacity — and perhaps recklessness — of Musk’s goal of sending humans to Mars as early as 2026. But for supporters, Tuesday’s flight was proof that the company’s “fail fast, learn faster” philosophy was finally paying off.

Musk, who watched the launch remotely but posted celebratory updates on X, called the mission a “huge step forward” in humanity’s journey to becoming a multiplanetary species. “This is why we keep going,” he wrote, sharing video of Starship streaking above the clouds.

In another update, he acknowledged the damage sustained during reentry but insisted it was part of the plan: “We pushed it hard. Heat shield mostly held up. Very promising for future missions.”

The stakes for SpaceX could not be higher. NASA has contracted Starship to play a central role in its Artemis 3 mission, which aims to return astronauts to the Moon in 2027.

That mission requires Starship to prove itself not just as a heavy-lift rocket but as a lander capable of delivering astronauts safely to the lunar surface.

Every test flight between now and then is crucial for securing NASA’s confidence. At the same time, Musk remains focused on his even bigger dream: launching the first human mission to Mars in 2026, when Earth and the red planet are at their closest orbit in years.

For now, the 10th test is being hailed as a turning point. It demonstrated that Starship can not only survive a launch and orbital mission but also endure the brutal conditions of atmospheric reentry.

Engineers will spend the coming weeks poring over telemetry data, analyzing the heat shield’s performance, and assessing how the rocket’s structure handled stress. The goal is clear: refine, repair, and get ready for test flight number 11.

Even with the success, challenges remain. SpaceX must prove that Starship can land safely on solid ground — not just splash down in oceans — and achieve rapid reuse without extensive overhauls.

Regulators at the Federal Aviation Administration, which investigated the failures of previous flights, will continue to scrutinize every step. Yet optimism is surging.

“This is what progress looks like,” one SpaceX engineer said on the company’s internal livestream as colleagues clapped in the background. “We learn, we adapt, and tonight, we win.”

In an era where private companies are increasingly taking the lead in space exploration, the image of Starship towering over the Texas coast before leaping into the skies feels symbolic.

For Elon Musk, who has made bold predictions and absorbed fierce criticism, Tuesday’s triumph is more than just a technical milestone. It’s proof that his relentless gamble — to build the most powerful, reusable rocket ever conceived — may finally be edging closer to reality.

After 10 flights filled with more failures than successes, Starship has at last proven it can fly, deliver, and survive. For Musk, for SpaceX, and for the dream of interplanetary travel, this was the night when hope finally outweighed the fireballs.