From explosions to milestones, SpaceX’s Starship journey to flight 12
As SpaceX works toward a May 19 debut of its third-generation Starship, here's a look back at all the previous test flights to date.
Eric Lagatta- Previous tests have seen both successes, like deploying satellites, and failures, including multiple explosions.
- Elon Musk's company aims to use the vehicle for future human missions to the moon and Mars.
- Key milestones achieved include reusing a Super Heavy booster and catching it with mechanical arms.
In April, SpaceX marked three years of Starship flight tests. Now, billionaire Elon Musk's commercial spaceflight company is about to launch the world's largest rocket for the 12th time ever.
The massive rocket has encountered a number of anomalies and failures since its debut in April 2023 ended in a premature explosion, including fiery mishaps both on the test stand and mid-flight that have attracted plenty of headlines.
But SpaceX has also managed to demonstrate what a feat of engineering Starship has the potential to become as Musk dreams of using the vehicle to land humans on the moon and Mars.
Throughout the course of 11 flight tests from South Texas to date, SpaceX has twice seen Starship deploy mock Starlink internet satellites, twice reused a Super Heavy booster and three times has caught a returning booster back at the launch site with giant mechanical arms known as "chopsticks." The upper stage, meanwhile, has managed to consistently fly at a suborbital height in space, traveling halfway around the world while landing in the Indian Ocean.
As SpaceX works toward a May 19 debut of its third-generation Starship, here's a look back at all the previous test flights to date.
Oct. 13, 2025: SpaceX ends year on high note
Starship last got off the ground Oct. 13, 2025 from SpaceX's Starbase headquarters in South Texas, located about 23 miles from Brownsville near the U.S.-Mexico border.
The launch system vehicle's lower stage, known as Super Heavy, ignited all of its 33 Raptor-class engines as it propelled the upper stage high above the Texas coast. Starship’s upper stage, the vehicle where crew and cargo would one day ride, separated within a few minutes of liftoff to fire its own six Raptor engines and continue on a lower suborbital trajectory, according to SpaceX.
As it flew halfway around the world, the vehicle deployed mock Starlink internet satellites for the second time in a row and relighted a Raptor engine in space for the third time ever in a necessary maneuver to one day bring a vehicle back to the ground.
The vehicle eventually succeeded in making a planned splashdown about an hour after liftoff in the Indian Ocean west of Australia.
The rocket booster, known as Super Heavy, returned to make a water landing about seven minutes after launch in the Gulf of Mexico, renamed by the U.S. government as the Gulf of America.
Aug. 26, 2025: SpaceX conducts most successful Starship test of the year
SpaceX's Aug. 26, 2025 Starship launch – coming on the heels of three consecutive flights in which the vehicle exploded prematurely – was also its most successful test of the vehicle in 2025.
In that test, the upper stage, the vehicle known as Starship, separated from the rocket booster about three minutes into the flight to continue on its own on a suborbital trajectory. The vehicle then hit two major milestones by deploying eight mock Starlink satellites and reigniting one of its Raptor engines in space for the second time ever, a necessary maneuver to bring a vehicle back to the ground
Re-entering Earth's atmosphere about an hour into the mission over the Indian Ocean, Starship then fired its engines to make a controlled vertical landing on the ocean's surface west of Australia before exploding in a fireball.
As for Super Heavy, the rocket booster made a water landing as planned off the Texas coast after completing several in-flight experiments.
May 27, 2025: Starship travels furthest distance of the year before exploding
After lifting off May 27, the upper stage vehicle, simply known as Starship, streaked through suborbital space – far surpassing the previous 2025 flights in January and March. But the Starship vehicle still met an untimely end when it spun out of control about halfway through its flight without achieving some of its most important objectives.
The mission got off to a positive start, with the successful first-ever launch of a rocket booster – known as Super Heavy – that had flown during a previous flight in January. Reusing a booster was an important milestone for SpaceX to demonstrate that the rocket can be flown multiple times.
The Starship spacecraft managed to separate from the booster and fire its six Raptor engines to propel itself on a trajectory taking it into space as it soared around the world.
But contact with Starship was lost approximately 46 minutes into the flight as it spun out of control and once again came apart. The debris fell into the Indian Ocean, far from inhabited areas, SpaceX said.
The company was also unable to deploy test Starlink satellites.
As for the Super Heavy booster, SpaceX lost contact with the lower-stage during its descent about six minutes after launch.
In three different test missions since October 2024, SpaceX has successfully flown and caught the booster back at the launch site using a pair of mechanical arms nicknamed "chopsticks." This time, SpaceX had no plans to recover the booster as it instead sought to push its performance beyond what has so far been attempted.
But rather than making a controlled splashdown as planned, the booster came apart in the air – what SpaceX refers to as "a rapid unscheduled disassembly" – and plummeted into the Gulf of Mexico.
March 6, 2025: Starship explodes for second consecutive time
On March 6, flight operators lost contact with the 165-foot upper portion of the vehicle, which exploded less than 10 minutes into the flight, creating debris visible from Florida to the Caribbean.
The explosion occurred despite SpaceX assuring that what mission teams learned from the seventh flight prompted them to make several modifications to the vehicle.
In a report released May 22 to the Federal Aviation Administration, SpaceX said mission operators noticed a "flash" close to the bottom section of Starship about five-and-a-half minutes into the vehicle's ascent burn, followed by what SpaceX called "an energetic event" that led to the loss of one of its Raptor engines.
Within about two minutes, the remaining five of the vehicle's six Raptor engines also subsequently shut down, causing the vehicle to veer out of control. This led to the communication breakdown and the vehicle to trigger its own self destruction, SpaceX concluded.
SpaceX identified "the most probable root cause" of the mishap as a hardware failure in one of the upper stage's Raptor engines "that resulted in inadvertent propellant mixing and ignition."
Despite the failure of the Starship vehicle, the spacecraft's 232-foot "Super Heavy" rocket booster managed to once again navigate back to the launch pad for the third time ever. The maneuver involves SpaceX catching the booster with giant mechanical arms known as chopsticks.
Having the capability of catching the Starship booster is crucial for SpaceX, giving the company a completely reusable booster that is able to launch again.
Jan. 16, 2025: First Starship launch of the year comes to fiery end
The first Starship demonstration of the year also ended in a fiery explosion after the Starship vehicle was lost during its suborbital flight.
Mission controllers lost contact with the spacecraft within 8 1/2 minutes of its flight before determining that it was destroyed in what the company called a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.” Video on social media showed the explosion and its aftermath as remains of the spacecraft were seen breaking up in what looked like a stunning meteor shower.
SpaceX, which conducted an investigation with the FAA, determined that the mishap was due to a series of propellant leaks and fires in the aft section of the vehicle that caused “all but one of Starship’s engines to execute controlled shut down sequences." This led to the communication breakdown and the vehicle to trigger its own self destruction.
On his social media site X, Musk made light of the fiery end.
"Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!" Musk posted, along with a user video of the Starship debris raining down near the Atlantic Ocean. He added in another post that "improved versions" of the spaceship and booster are "already waiting for launch."
The launch did end with one major accomplishment – the second-ever successful return of the rocket booster to the launch pad.
Nov. 19, 2024: Trump in attendance; booster catch called off
The final Starship flight test of 2024 took place in front of a newly re-elected President Donald Trump.
The Starship began its projected trajectory at 5 p.m. ET over the Gulf of Mexico, since renamed by the U.S. government as the Gulf of America, following a similar suborbital path as previous flights. The rocket booster splashed down off the coast of Texas seven minutes after launch.
The Starship vehicle itself flew for more than an hour before splashing down at 6:05 p.m. ET in the Indian Ocean.
As for the booster, SpaceX officials had hoped to replicate what they did for the first time in the previous test, steering it back autonomously to the landing pad before catching it with two giant mechanical arms. But during the flight, officials opted to skip the complex maneuver for safety reasons.
In an update on its website, SpaceX attributed the decision to data from "automated health checks" of hardware on both the launch and catch tower.
The company also reignited its Raptor engines in space to attempt an orbital burn – a crucial maneuver to one day bring a vehicle back to the ground. The launch also included plans to fly the ship at a "higher angle of attack" to test what it can handle on future landings.
Oct. 13, 2024: SpaceX catches rocket booster in mechanical arms nicknamed ‘chopsticks’
For its fifth test flight, the empty Starship blasted off from the southern tip of Texas near the Mexican border. As in previous tests, the vehicle flew on a trajectory over the Gulf.
In a first, the first-stage Super Heavy booster flew back to the launch pad. SpaceX had built a launch tower with massive mechanized metal arms, nicknamed "chopsticks," that then managed to catch the descending booster in a daring maneuver.
Prior to the booster dropping and landing, it had pushed the Starship upward into the atmosphere, sending it soaring more than 130 miles high.
An hour after liftoff, Starship made a controlled landing in the Indian Ocean. Ahead of the demo, SpaceX engineers reworked the rocket's heat shield, replacing the entire thermal protection system with newer tiles and a backup ablative layer.
June 6, 2024: Starship completes first-ever successful landing burn
The craft experienced a successful separation from the booster, which saw 32 of 33 engines igniting properly during launch, about seven minutes into the flight.
The booster successfully came back down to Earth and splashed down in the Gulf as planned and all six of Starship's engines powered it into successful orbital insertion.
Heat shields protecting the outside of the craft took a beating, with at least one throwing debris into one of the live-streaming external cameras, but it managed to make a successful re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.
Roughly one hour and six minutes into the flight, Starship completed its first-ever landing burn and splashed down into the Indian Ocean to raucous applause.
March 14, 2024: Starship reaches space before being lost in atmosphere
In the third test, the Starship succeeded in separating from the booster and proceeding to orbit within minutes of launching, where it conducted a series of in-flight tests while coasting through space.
Video of its flight beamed back to Earth using SpaceX's Starlink Satellite network was able to capture the beginning of the spacecraft's re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. However, the signal was lost about an hour into the mission before SpaceX concluded that the craft likely broke apart.
Despite Starship's failure to make its planned splashdown in the Indian Ocean, SpaceX said the rocket still achieved several key milestones, including the successful firing of its 33 Raptor engines in the booster and the opening of a payload door.
Nov. 18, 2023: Starship makes it further in second test, but still explodes
During the second launch test of the Starship, the rocket survived for longer and achieved some milestones, but it still eventually exploded.
The booster was able to successfully separate from the rocket, which reached space before the ground crew lost communication with it after nine minutes. Three minutes later, SpaceX lost both the booster and the spacecraft in two explosions.
Rather than seeing it as a setback, SpaceX expressed optimism about the stage separation while saying the rest would just be valuable data to help them remedy whatever went wrong.
April 20, 2023: Starship explodes minutes after inaugural launch
The Starship got off to a rough start when it exploded just four minutes into its inaugural test flight.
The craft was able to launch at SpaceX’s private Starbase site in Texas, but telemetry data revealed that several of the spacecraft's engines had failed, triggering the explosion before the booster and spacecraft could even separate.
SpaceX later confirmed the rocket's flight termination system was activated to destroy the tumbling vehicle before it met its fiery end.
Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at [email protected]