SpaceX launched the upgraded third version of its Starship rocket for the first time, and while it didn't blow up immediately, it did manage to make things interesting in the Gulf of Mexico anyway.
The 407-foot rocket - the most powerful ever built, because why build small ones? - lifted off from SpaceX's company town Starbase, Texas, at 5:30 p.m. local time. The upper stage separated from the Super Heavy booster and continued into space, as planned. The booster, however, decided to take a more spontaneous route: its engines failed to re-ignite properly for the landing burn, and it tumbled into the Gulf of Mexico, likely exploding. Oops.
Meanwhile, Starship lost one of its six Raptor engines on the way up but gamely deployed all 20 Starlink satellite simulators plus two modified Starlink satellites designed to film its own exterior. Roughly one hour after liftoff, it simulated a landing in the Indian Ocean by tipping over and exploding, as expected. So, a productive Tuesday.
This test launch was the first real shakedown of the upgraded Starship V3 hardware, which has been in development for months, and it also tested a brand-new launchpad at Starbase that SpaceX has been building for years. It was also the first Starship flight since October 2025, after a previous booster exploded during testing in November and a hydraulic pin on the launch tower refused to retract during a Thursday attempt.
The launch comes at a historically awkward moment: SpaceX's IPO filing was made public this week, with the company expected to list on the Nasdaq in mid-June, reportedly aiming to raise around $75 billion. The money is earmarked for further development, massive AI ambitions, and paying off some debt associated with xAI and Musk's social media company X. So this might be the last Starship test launch that doesn't trigger a stock market reaction.
SpaceX has spent years and billions of dollars developing Starship, which it sees as crucial to its mission of making life multi-planetary. In the near term, it needs to deliver more advanced Starlink satellites to Earth orbit - Starlink being the only profitable part of SpaceX's business. This new version features third-generation Raptor engines with more thrust and a simpler design, and the booster is designed for faster takeoffs and easier catches by the launch tower. Assuming the booster doesn't just explode, that is.