Unlike most of Musk's other ventures, Starship keeps it together for Flight Test 10

Explosions all expected and on schedule this time

SpaceX has finally managed a test flight of Starship without anything creating an impromptu firework display.

Aside from some very minor issues, Flight Test 10 was a complete success for the company. This will be a great relief to its engineers and NASA managers, who depend on Elon Musk's mighty rocket for their lunar ambitions.

The rocket launched on time, at 2330 UTC on August 26 (1830 CDT, local time in Texas). One of the Super Heavy Booster engines failed during the ascent, but as SpaceX's enthusiastic commentator noted, it did not affect the mission. After separation, the booster made a controlled splashdown into the Gulf of Mexico and demonstrated a hover above the water with only two engines running before eventually reaching the surface and exploding as expected.

The second stage continued its climb to space with all engines running and no sign of the leaks and failures that have vexed previous test flights. During the suborbital flight, eight Starlink V3 simulators were deployed – it appeared that a number struck the payload door on the way out – before SpaceX performed a short relight of one of Starship's engines to prove it was possible ahead of a possible orbital mission that would require a controlled de-orbit.

The Starlink simulators were also on a suborbital trajectory and were expected to be destroyed during re-entry.

Finally, Starship had to make it down to the Indian Ocean without tumbling out of control or coming apart under the forces of re-entry. Once again, SpaceX achieved another success. While there was clearly some burn-through at the base of one of the aft flaps, the vehicle itself remained under control even as SpaceX intentionally stressed its structure.

As the water neared, Starship flipped to a nose-up attitude and performed a landing burn above the ocean. As expected, it toppled over and exploded, completing the mission.

Some questions will need to be answered. Why did the aft flap suffer such damage? Why did one of the booster engines stop running? Why did the payload strike the door on the way out?

However, those are minor issues when compared to the overall success of the mission. One more launch of this version of SpaceX's Starship remains before the company moves on to the next generation of its monster rocket and, hopefully, orbital operations. ®