SpaceX Starship deploys mock satellites in successful test

(Bloomberg) -- SpaceX’s upgraded Starship successfully deployed mock satellites and returned to Earth largely unscathed, though its booster spun out of control and broke apart over the Gulf of Mexico. The gigantic rocket’s twelfth major test flight was a successful, if slightly rough and incomplete, debut of the vehicle, which is critical to Elon Musk’s efforts to scale his rocket business into an artificial intelligence and satellite communications empire. 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. A few minutes into the flight, the Super Heavy booster separated from the Starship spacecraft as planned. But the booster didn’t perform an expected engine burn and fell out of control as it came back to the Gulf of Mexico. Just before the vehicle splashed down, SpaceX lost communication with the booster, indicating that it may have broken up. One of the six engines on Starship also shut down early while it climbed to space. Despite the problem, Starship still managed to reach space and deploy 20 dummy Starlink satellites, designed to mimic future payloads. “It’s pretty incredible to see this happening live from space now,” SpaceX employee Kate Tice told viewers on a broadcast as applause and chants of “USA, USA” erupted from employees. The vehicle also released two specialized satellites to test new Starlink hardware and scan Starship’s heat shield. All of the satellites, however, should fall back to Earth, burning up in the atmosphere as expected. Starship then hurtled through Earth’s atmosphere, braking from roughly 26,300 kilometers (16,342 miles) per hour while in space, before maneuvering itself and splashing down in the Indian Ocean. It then promptly exploded, though its recovery from the water was always unlikely. “We were expecting this reentry to be super spicy,” Tice said, describing how the ship’s heat shield tiles withstood the plunge. SpaceX still must demonstrate and master many novel technologies between now and a moon landing — notably, the ability to refuel Starship while in orbit and launch the vehicle roughly a dozen times or more in a row. It’s a daunting to-do list when SpaceX still has not completed a full orbital mission with Starship. The closely watched flight was a key demonstration of upgrades from previously launched Starship prototypes, including increasing the rocket’s power and capability. SpaceX has sunk more than $15 billion into developing its massive rocket. 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. The company has been gearing up for a public offering that seeks to raise as much as $75 billion at a valuation of potentially $2 trillion. Details of the IPO, including the size and timing, could still change. Fueling its valuation, SpaceX has proposed a number of ambitious initiatives that require Starship to be fully operational, including launching as many as one million satellites into orbit to serve as AI data centers. “Our ability to execute our growth strategy is highly dependent on Starship,” SpaceX wrote in its prospectus. 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.