SpaceX’s second-generation Starship vehicle has just made a graceful exit. The company achieved every major objective it set for the super-heavy lift vehicle’s 11th flight test, the second-gen Starship’s final flight, which launched from Starbase in Texas on October 13. It followed another successful test in August, which saw Starship deploy its payload for the first time ever. Before those two most recent flights, SpaceX suffered a series of failures: Starship exploded during its ascent stage in the company’s seventh and eighth tests, and it failed to deploy its payload during its ninth test. Another Starship vehicle blew up on the ground during a routine test while SpaceX was preparing for its 10th flight.

All of the vehicle’s 33 Raptor engines ignited upon launch, and the stage separation and first-stage ascent went smoothly. The Super Heavy booster splashed down into the ocean as planned, while Starship was able to deploy all its Starlink simulators before re-entering the atmosphere. During its reentry burn, SpaceX intentionally stressed the vehicle to determine the capabilities of its heatshield. And with just a few minutes left to the flight, the vehicle executed a banking maneuver to “mimic the trajectory that future missions returning to Starbase will fly.”

The company says it will now focus on developing the next generation of Starship and Super Heavy. It has multiple versions of the vehicle and the booster being prepared for tests at the moment, and it expects them to be used for the first Starship orbital flights and operational payload missions.

Following a string of unsuccessful flights, SpaceX managed to pull off its most successful test in months, with Starship fulfilling a number of key milestones.

It was a good day for SpaceX. The megarocket blasted off on time, leaving the Starbase launch mount at 7:30 p.m. ET. Stage separation went off without a hitch, with the Super Heavy booster landing in the ocean as planned nearly 7 minutes into the mission. Second engine cutoff (SECO) occurred a few minutes later, and Starship began to cruise in space, this time without the awful tumbling experienced in the most recent mission.

History was made at the 18:30 mark, when Starship opened its bay doors and ejected payloads into space for the first time.

In this case, the payloads were mock-ups of next-gen Starlink satellites. Acting like a Pez dispenser, Starship popped each dummy satellite into space one at a time and in roughly one-minute intervals (the units will fall back to Earth and burn up in the atmosphere). It marked a huge moment for SpaceX, with Starship finally functioning as a delivery vehicle.

About 38 minutes into the flight, Starship re-lit one of its vacuum-optimized Raptor engines—the second time SpaceX has ever pulled off the maneuver.

Reentry of Starship began at roughly the 45-minute mark, with the spacecraft hurtling towards the Indian Ocean. SpaceX ran a stress test on the vehicle, deliberately compromising its heat shield to be “mean to the spaceship” and putting it “through its paces,” as SpaceX’s Dan Huot said during the broadcast. The fins in particular were pushed to the limit, with one of them showing clear signs of scarring.

The Starship upper stage returned to Earth at 8:37 p.m. ET, ending the 67-minute mission. Despite the abuse, Starship executed its last-moment flip, performing a landing burn and splashing down softly into the Indian Ocean before exploding in a fireball. Incredibly, a camera mounted on a nearby buoy managed to catch the action.

This was the flight that SpaceX desperately needed. We’ll learn more about the test in the coming days and weeks, but the modifications made to the oversized launch system appeared to do the trick. But as we’ve learned, a single successful test is no guarantee of future gain. SpaceX still has a long way to go before this incredible launch system is fully operational.

 

Elon Musk’s interview with CBS Sunday Morning seemed to get off to an awkward start, as reporter David Pogue asked the SpaceX CEO about his thoughts on his ally Donald Trump’s policies, including growing restrictions on international students.

“I think we want to stick to the subject of the day, which is, like, spaceships, as opposed to, you know, presidential policy,” Musk said.

Pogue looked surprised, replying, “Oh, okay, I was told, ‘Anything’s good.’”

“No,” Musk said, while looking into the distance. “Well … no.”

He did, however, comment on the controversy around his Department of Government Efficiency, which has been making aggressive cuts across federal agencies, and which Musk complained had become “the whipping boy for everything.”

“If there was some cut, real or imagined, everyone would blame DOGE,” he said.

Musk also suggested that he’s “a little stuck in a bind” when it comes to the Trump administration, where “I don’t want to speak out against the administration, but I also don’t want to take responsibility for everything the administration’s doing.”

Pogue’s interview was conducted before SpaceX’s Starship test flight on Tuesday, which saw the ship successfully launch but lose control on reentry. Asked whether there’s anything linking his various companies — in addition to SpaceX, there’s Tesla (which faces ongoing anti-Musk protests), xAI and X (formerly Twitter), Neuralink, and The Boring Company — Musk replied, “I guess you could think of the businesses as things that improve the probable trajectory of civilization.”

At the time, Musk was supposedly pulling back from his government work but said he would remain involved for a “day or two” per week. He told Pogue, “DOGE is going to continue, just as a way of life. And I will have some participation in that, but as I’ve said publicly, my focus has to be on the companies at this point.”

Pogue noted that after their conversation, an interview clip of Musk’s comments criticizing the Trump-backed budget bill drove a news cycle of their own — and soon after, Musk said he was ending his time as a special government employee. Trump, however, subsequently said Musk is “not really leaving.”