SpaceX Starship rocket launches for the 10th time

SpaceX launched the 10th Starship rocket test from the Starbase, Texas, facility, making another successful liftoff of this giant integrated space vehicle. This liftoff was cleared after the two cancelled launch attempts; the first attempt was scrubbed due to a liquid oxygen leak from the ground systems, and the second attempt was denied on Monday due to bad weather.

The vehicle lifted off from the launch pad 1 with 33 Raptor engines, throwing full thrust on the ground. The booster performed a flip maneuver in a controlled direction before a boostback burn and returned to Earth, where it splashed down into the Gulf of America after hovering over the water and shutting down its three to two Raptor engines.

Liftoff of Starship! pic.twitter.com/d6d2hHgMa0

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 26, 2025

On the other hand, the second stage completed its successful ascent burn and completed nominal orbital insertion without any damage as of 9:50 minutes in the mission. Now the ship is coasting in space and looking to complete its on-flight tasks, including next-gen Starlink simulators and single-engine relight before reentry.

SpaceX is pouring a huge spending on these rockets that are under test and have achieved some significant milestones. However, the Flight 10 preparations story includes a setback, which pushed the launch date to August.

In mid-June, SpaceX tested the upper stage for single-engine and all-engine static fire tests. The first test went smoothly, but the second test experienced an anomaly before the team could even initiate the engine burn. As a result, Ship 36, designed for Flight 10, exploded and destroyed the test site.

An investigation revealed that the explosion was caused by damage to a composite overwrapped pressure vessel (COPV) in Starship’s payload bay section. However, the company quickly returned to the test schedule and brought a new ship, Starship 37, to test on the launch pad. This ship has seen back-to-back single and all-engine static fires.

Additionally, the company has addressed the explosion with this new ship, and new upgrades have made it more test-friendly than the previous version.

SpaceX Founder and CEO, Elon Musk, is weighing big on the Starship rocket to make life multiplanetary. He has revealed a plan to send the first Starship rocket to Mars as soon as the next transit window opens. Before that, the company was focusing on solving engineering challenges, including engine reusability, a robust thermal system to save the ship’s hardware, ship-to-ship refueling, and vertical landing.

With the 10th test flight in check, SpaceX will record important data and use it to improve the Starship for future missions.