SpaceX launched the latest Starship flight from Starbase in Texas (United States) in the evening. The vehicle climbed on dozens of Raptor engines and completed stage separation minutes into the mission. Mission control monitored the ascent and the early phases of flight as planned.
The Super Heavy booster executed a planned engine transition during descent by stopping its primary landing engines and switching to backup engines. The booster then made a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. That procedure will help engineers validate recovery scenarios when engines fail during return.
The upper stage reached space, and for the first time on a test flight, it opened its payload bay door and released a set of Starlink mass simulators. The team also relit a Raptor engine in orbit to change trajectory and to prepare for reentry. These outcomes show progress on payload deployment and in-orbit propulsion control.
During atmospheric return, engineers exposed upgraded heat shield sections to intense heating. Teams removed test tiles and trialed new metallic and actively cooled tiles to observe how the thermal protection performs under real conditions. The upper stage maintained comms through most of reentry and then splashed down in the planned ocean area.
This mission will represent a definitive milestone in the Starship program. The flight sealed a recent record of reversals in reaffirming that key systems, such as the release of the recovery payload and reentry testing, were proven. SpaceX will use the data to perfect designs and to schedule follow-up flights towards crewed flights and large satellite launches.