SpaceX’s Starship completed its tenth flight test on Tuesday, August 26, lifting off from Starbase, Texas, at 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT. The launch marked another milestone in the company’s pursuit of building the world’s first fully reusable rocket, with SpaceX declaring the mission a success after meeting all major objectives.
The test began with Super Heavy igniting all 33 Raptor engines for a clean liftoff. After stage separation, the booster performed a boostback burn before splashing down into the Gulf of Mexico, even demonstrating engine redundancy by switching to a backup engine during its landing burn.
Meanwhile, Starship’s upper stage achieved its planned suborbital trajectory and deployed eight Starlink satellite simulators in a Pez dispenser-like fashion, completing the spacecraft’s first successful payload delivery demonstration.
Starship also managed its second-ever in-space Raptor relight, proving a key capability for future missions requiring deorbit burns. During reentry, SpaceX intentionally pushed the vehicle’s heatshield and structural limits, gathering valuable data on flap control and high-stress conditions. Starship capped the flight with a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The rocket survived atmospheric reentry, but did suffer a post-landing explosion of some sort.
This successful flight follows setbacks earlier in the summer, when the prototype originally slated for the mission, Ship 36, exploded during a static fire test in June. After weeks of investigation and preparation, SpaceX cleared the replacement vehicle for launch, though Flight 10 itself faced multiple delays after initially being scheduled for August 24.
Looking ahead, Elon Musk has teased major upgrades. He confirmed that Starship V3 should roll out of testing by the end of this year, with heavy flight activity in 2026. A longer, even more powerful Starship V4 with 42 Raptor engines is targeted to fly in 2027.
Watch SpaceX’s full tenth flight test of Starship in the video below:
