{"id":688462,"date":"2026-05-23T01:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T01:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/688462\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T01:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T01:07:08","slug":"spacex-launches-its-biggest-rocket-yet-in-test-flight-from-texas-spacex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/688462\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX launches its biggest rocket yet in test flight from Texas | SpaceX"},"content":{"rendered":"

SpaceX launched<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

The redesigned mega-rocket made its debut two days after SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced he\u2019s taking the company public<\/a>. It blasted off from the southern tip of Texas, carrying 20 mock Starlink satellites for release halfway around the world.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s 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\u2019s Artemis program.<\/p>\n

The last of the old space-skimming Starships lifted off in October. SpaceX\u2019s third-generation Starship \u2013 a souped-up version dubbed V3 \u2013 soared from a brand-new launchpad at Starbase, near the Mexican border. Last-minute pad issues thwarted Thursday evening\u2019s launch attempt.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

At 407ft (124 meters), the latest model eclipses the older Starship lines by several feet and packs more engine thrust.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Nasa is paying SpaceX billions of dollars \u2013 and also Jeff Bezos\u2019s Blue Origin \u2013 to provide the lunar landers that will be used to land Artemis astronauts on the moon.<\/p>\n

The two companies are scrambling to be first.<\/p>\n

While Starship has reached the fringes of space on multiple flights lasting an hour at most, Bezos\u2019s Blue Moon has yet to lift off, although a prototype is being readied for a moonshot later this year.<\/p>\n

Nasa is following April\u2019s successful lunar fly-around by four astronauts with a docking trial run in orbit around Earth planned for next year. For that Artemis III mission, astronauts will practice docking their Orion capsule with Starship, Blue Moon or both.<\/p>\n

A moon landing by two astronauts \u2013 Artemis IV \u2013 could follow as soon as 2028 using either Starship or Blue Moon, whichever lander is safer and ready first. It will be Nasa\u2019s first lunar landing with a crew since 1972\u2019s Apollo 17. The goal this time is a moon base near the lunar south pole, staffed by astronauts as well as robots.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SpaceX launched its biggest, most powerful Starship yet on a test flight Friday, an upgraded version that Nasa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,128,285],"class_list":["post-688462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}