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SpaceX’s Starship Completes 10th Test, Deploys First Payload and Splashes Down Both Stages

The success marked progress toward capabilities required for reusability, Starlink deployment, and NASA’s planned lunar lander.

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Preparations continue to launch a SpaceX Starship spacecraft at sunrise as it sits atop a super heavy booster at the company's complex in Starbase, Texas, U.S., August 26, 2025. REUTERS/Steve Nesius
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Overview

  • Lifting off from Starbase in South Texas at 7:30 p.m. ET, the uncrewed rocket achieved stage separation and reached space on a suborbital trajectory.
  • Starship deployed eight dummy Starlink satellites for the first time and completed an in‑space engine relight, both key objectives missed on prior flights.
  • The Super Heavy booster executed test maneuvers and performed a planned splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico after evaluating landing‑burn configurations.
  • The upper stage reentered over the Indian Ocean and splashed down near northwestern Australia, with cameras showing damage on impact that SpaceX still counted as a successful end to the test.
  • The launch followed two scrubs earlier in the week—one for a ground‑system liquid oxygen leak and one for weather—with post‑flight analysis and FAA oversight guiding upcoming missions.