SpaceX Launches Its Biggest Starship Yet

SpaceX launched its biggest, most powerful Starship yet on a test flight Friday, an upgraded version that NASA is counting on to land astronauts on the moon. The redesigned mega rocket made its debut two days after SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced he's taking the company public. It blasted off from the southern tip of Texas, carrying 20 mock Starlink satellites that were released midway through the hourlong spaceflight that stretched halfway around the world, the AP reports. The spacecraft reached its final destination—the Indian Ocean—despite some engine trouble, before erupting in flames upon impact. Musk called it "an epic" launch and landing.

• The last of the old space-skimming Starships lifted off in October. SpaceX's third-generation Starship—a souped-up version dubbed V3—soared from a brand-new launch pad at Starbase, near the Mexican border. Last-minute pad issues thwarted Thursday evening's launch attempt.
• Plans for a key test, relighting a Starship engine mid-flight, were called off because of an issue that left only five of its six engines operating during its ascent, CNN reports.

• SpaceX was hoping to avoid the fireworks it experienced during back-to-back launches last year when midair explosions rained wreckage down on the Atlantic. Earlier flights also ended in flames. There was no fireball this time until the very end. The spacecraft plummeted upright into the Indian Ocean under seemingly full control, then toppled over and ignited. That last part was not unexpected, according to SpaceX.
• While the liftoff itself went well, not all of the engines fired as the booster attempted a controlled return. The spacecraft also had to make do with fewer engines, but kept heading eastward 120 miles up. A pair of modified, camera-equipped Starlinks ejected from Starship provided brief views of the spacecraft in flight—a remarkable first.
• Starship is meant to be fully reusable, with giant mechanical arms at the launch pads to catch the returning rocket stages. But on this latest trial run, nothing was being recovered. The Gulf of Mexico marked the end of the road for the redesigned first-stage booster, and the Indian Ocean for the spacecraft and its satellite demos.
• It was the 12th test flight of the rocket that Musk is building to get people to Mars one day. But first comes the moon and NASA's Artemis program. NASA is paying SpaceX billions of dollars—and also Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin—to provide the lunar landers that will be used to land Artemis astronauts on the moon. The two companies are scrambling to be first.
• This story has been updated with new developments.