SpaceX's giant Starship Mars rocket nails critical 10th test flight
SMRTR summary
A chunk of SpaceX's Starship dramatically broke apart during reentry, sending debris floating into space—yet the massive rocket still completed its mission, marking a triumphant comeback after recent failures.
"That was absolutely incredible," SpaceX Build Reliability Engineer Amanda Lee said during the livestream of Monday's test flight from South Texas.
The 10th Starship flight achieved all its objectives: Super Heavy booster splashed down successfully in the Gulf of Mexico, the upper stage deployed eight dummy Starlink satellites, and—crucially—the spacecraft survived Earth's reentry despite SpaceX deliberately removing heat shield tiles to stress-test the vehicle.
This success follows three troubled flights earlier this year, including one where a Starship exploded on the test stand in June.
SpaceX had redesigned critical components after investigating previous failures, including a fuel tank pressurization system and pressure vessels.
"We promised maximum excitement. Starship delivered," said SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot as the vehicle splashed down precisely in its targeted Indian Ocean landing zone, 66.5 minutes after liftoff.
SMRTR provides this summary for quick context. The original article belongs to Hacker News.
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