SpaceX’s Starship lifted off in a high-stakes test of a new rocket designed to deliver Elon Musk’s ambitions for human space travel, satellite internet and data centers in orbit.
The two-tier rocket system, made up of the Super Heavy Booster and the Starship spacecraft, thundered off the launchpad at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in South Texas at 5:30 p.m. local time on Friday.
The debut flight of the third iteration of the rocket, dubbed Version 3 or V3, is ongoing and is expected to last roughly an hour.
The closely watched mission is a key demonstration of upgrades from previously launched Starship prototypes, including increasing the rocket’s power and capability.
It comes the same week SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., filed publicly for an initial public offering that could happen as soon as June. The filing revealed billions in losses and the super-voting share plan allowing Musk to keep the company under his control.
Designed to carry cargo and humans to distant destinations in space, Starship is also meant to unlock Musk’s ultimate goal of starting a human settlement on Mars. The rocket is vital for lofting huge numbers of satellites for SpaceX’s fast-growing Starlink internet business.
The company also holds $4 billion worth of contracts with NASA to land astronauts on the lunar surface, and SpaceX has its own plans to start a moon base.
But before all that, SpaceX needs to show significant progress with Starship’s development, which has been marred by explosive setbacks. It’s been roughly seven months since SpaceX last launched a Starship mission in October of 2025.
