The spacecraft blasted off from Texas and reentered over the Pacific about three hours later. SpaceX had aimed for a 10-hour flight spanning six full laps around Earth, meant to prove the rocket's readiness for NASA's Artemis moon program.
Starship tipped over and burst into flames upon splashdown, a dramatic end to a mission that otherwise marked real progress for founder Elon Musk's company. The rocket almost didn't make it to orbit at all.
For SpaceX, this flight checks a major box. Reaching orbit and delivering satellites shows the massive rocket can do real work, not just fly test patterns. Still, stopping short of the planned six laps leaves engineers with unfinished business before NASA can rely on the rocket for future missions.
The company has treated failure as part of the process throughout Starship's development, and this flight fits that pattern. It got farther than before, but it also ended in fire on the water, a reminder that turning a rocket this big into a reliable moon lander still has real hurdles ahead.