SpaceX Starship Completes First Successful Test Flight Since Listing

According to Lianhe Zaobao citing Reuters, SpaceX's 122-meter Starship super-heavy launch vehicle completed its first successful test flight since the company went public on Friday, clearing a path for regular commercial service to begin by the end of this year. The Starship system lifted off at 6:50 p.m. Eastern time Friday, or 7:50 a.m. Singapore time Saturday, from SpaceX's Starbase in Texas.

The 13th test flight aimed to validate design improvements in the third-generation Starship and went on to deploy 20 next-generation Starlink satellites for the first time. SpaceX said the spacecraft established radio and laser-link communications with all of the satellites and gathered key telemetry data. The satellites later followed a planned suborbital trajectory and burned up on reentry. The flight lasted about an hour, but the first-stage booster fell into the Gulf of Mexico at a faster-than-expected speed and did not complete its return to Earth perfectly. SpaceX said the test will provide critical data for expanding the Starlink network, and it hopes to use Starship to deploy third-generation satellites by the end of 2026 to add enough capacity for ordinary mobile phones to connect directly to satellites in areas without traditional cellular coverage.