By Obinna Uballa
SpaceX’s major win on Tuesday as its big Starship rocket successfully completed a critical test flight, marking a turnaround after a string of explosive setbacks earlier in the year, has elicited reactions, reports said.
Experts have reportedly hailed the move as groundbreaking. The more-than-400-foot rocket, central to SpaceX’s commercial ambitions and NASA’s plan to return astronauts to the Moon, lifted off from the company’s Starbase in Texas at 6:30 p.m. local time for a tense, hour-long mission, CNBC reported.
During the test, the tenth for Starship, the rocket deployed eight mock Starlink satellites, reignited its Raptor engine in orbit, and stress-tested its heat shield, according to the report.
The latter is a milestone for CEO Elon Musk, who repirts say, aims to develop reusable heat shields to cut refurbishment costs that plague traditional rockets.
After stage separation, the Super Heavy booster made a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, while Starship itself touched down in the Indian Ocean after completing its orbital run, the report added, noting that the launch was delayed by two days and comes as a significant boost for SpaceX following a series of fiery failures during earlier tests of its updated variant.
NASA’s interim chief Sean Duffy hailed the achievement on social media: “Flight 10’s success paves the way for the Starship Human Landing System that will bring American astronauts back to the Moon on Artemis III. This is a great day for @NASA and our commercial space partners.”
Starship is reportedly slated to deliver NASA astronauts to the Moon in 2027 under the Artemis program and plays a pivotal role in Musk’s long-term goal of Mars colonization.
The successful test also coincides with reports that SpaceX, projected to generate $15.5 billion in revenue this year, is planning an insider share sale valuing the company at about $400 billion, according to the report.
The achievement underscores SpaceX’s aggressive “rapid test-to-develop” strategy, as competition heats up in the commercial launch market. The company also stands to benefit from recent U.S. government efforts to streamline regulations on private rocket launches, the report noted
