SpaceX launches its biggest rocket yet in test flight from Texas

SpaceX launched its most powerful Starship yet, a redesigned V3 version, on a test flight from Starbase near the Mexican border. The rocket carried 20 mock Starlink satellites released halfway around the world. The launch followed a failed attempt due to last-minute pad issues. The new model stands at 407 feet and includes more engine thrust than earlier versions. Although Starship is designed to be fully reusable using mechanical arms to catch returning stages, this trial run recovered no hardware. The first-stage booster ended in the Gulf of Mexico, while the spacecraft and satellite demos ended in the Indian Ocean. NASA is funding SpaceX and Blue Origin for lunar landers for Artemis, while NASA also plans additional astronaut missions and docking trials.

"SpaceX launched its biggest, most powerful Starship yet on a test flight Friday, an upgraded version that Nasa is counting on to land astronauts on the moon. The redesigned mega-rocket made its debut two days after SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced he's taking the company public. It blasted off from the southern tip of Texas, carrying 20 mock Starlink satellites for release halfway around the world. It's the 12th test flight of the rocket that Musk is building to get people to Mars one day. But first comes the moon and Nasa's Artemis program."

"The last of the old space-skimming Starships lifted off in October. SpaceX's third-generation Starship a souped-up version dubbed V3 soared from a brand-new launchpad at Starbase, near the Mexican border. Last-minute pad issues thwarted Thursday evening's launch attempt. SpaceX was hoping to avoid the fireworks it experienced during back-to-back launches last year when midair explosions rained wreckage down on the Atlantic. Earlier flights also ended in flames."

"At 407ft (124 meters), the latest model eclipses the older Starship lines by several feet and packs more engine thrust. Starship is meant to be fully reusable, with giant mechanical arms at the launchpads to catch the returning rocket stages. But on this latest trial run, nothing was being recovered. The Gulf of Mexico marked the end of the road for the redesigned first-stage booster, and the Indian Ocean for the spacecraft and its satellite demos."

"Nasa is paying SpaceX billions of dollars and also Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin to provide the lunar landers that will be used to land Artemis astronauts on the moon. The two companies are scrambling to be first. While Starship has reached the fringes of space on multiple flights lasting an hour at most, Bezos's Blue Moon has yet to lift off, although a prototype is being readied for a moonshot later this year. Nasa is following April's successful lunar fly-around by four astronauts with a docking trial run in orbit around Earth"

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