SpaceX Mega-Rocket Soars in Daring Launch from Texas Coast

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND: Elon Musk’s massive SpaceX Starship rocket took off from the Texas shoreline on Tuesday.

The recent launch marked the newest trial of the mighty rocket, a key element in Musk’s vision to eventually transport humans to the Moon and Mars. Onlookers assembled to witness the striking takeoff, optimistic that this mission would succeed where the previous two had failed—both having ended in fiery crashes.

At approximately 6:36 p.m. (2336 GMT), the largest and most powerful rocket ever constructed lifted off from the company’s Starbase site, located near a small southern Texas community that recently chose to incorporate as a city—now sharing the name Starbase.

Towering at 403 feet (123 meters), the black-and-white giant is built for full reusability and represents billionaire Elon Musk’s ambitious vision of turning humanity into a multi-planetary civilization.

NASA is relying on a modified version of Starship to act as the crew lander for Artemis 3, the mission aimed at bringing American astronauts back to the Moon.

However, the previous two trials concluded with the upper stages bursting into flames, scattering debris across Caribbean islands and causing flight disruptions — increasing the urgency for SpaceX to achieve a successful outcome this time.

Before the countdown began, anticipation ran high among the many spectators who had made their way to Isla Blanca Park on South Padre Island, eager to see whether SpaceX would succeed this time.

Fifty-year-old Australian Piers Dawson told AFP he’s “fascinated” by the rocket and made it a highlight of his family vacation — marking his first visit to the United States with his wife and teenage child.

“I’m mainly hoping for a smooth liftoff. It’s definitely thrilling,” Dawson shared, noting he had pulled his 15-year-old son out of school to witness the event.

A number of small tourist boats gathered across the lagoon for a view of the thrilling event, as a live broadcast showed Musk at Starbase mission control, sporting a T-shirt that read “Occupy Mars.”

Quick to fail, quicker to learn                                                                                                         

So far, Starship has completed eight full test flights mounted on the Super Heavy booster—half ended in success, while the other four concluded in explosive failures.

SpaceX is banking on its philosophy of "fail fast, learn fast," a strategy that has already helped establish its dominance in the commercial space industry. The company believes this high-risk, high-reward approach will continue to drive innovation.

However, it admitted in a recent statement that advancement “won’t always come in giant strides.”

On a positive note, SpaceX has now proven three times that it can successfully catch the Super Heavy booster using the colossal robotic arms on its launch tower—a groundbreaking engineering move considered essential for making the rocket system rapidly reusable and cost-effective.

For this ninth flight, SpaceX will reuse a Super Heavy booster for the first time. But this time, engineers will challenge the system further by testing new flight dynamics, including a steeper descent and the deliberate shutdown of one engine. Because of these experimental conditions, the company won’t attempt to catch the booster; instead, it will land in the Gulf of Mexico.

Meanwhile, the upper-stage Starship vehicle will once again aim to complete a partial orbit before splashing down in the Indian Ocean.

This mission also includes stress testing the vehicle. Engineers have removed several heat shield tiles to evaluate how the ship holds up—part of broader efforts to enhance its reusability over time.

In another first, SpaceX will attempt to deploy an actual payload: test models of its Starlink internet satellites. These "simulators" are expected to disintegrate in the atmosphere during reentry.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), in giving the green light for this launch, expanded the no-fly zone over the Atlantic Ocean to 1,600 nautical miles east of the launch site. The FAA is also coordinating with agencies in the UK, British territories like the Turks and Caicos Islands, and nearby nations including the Bahamas, Mexico, and Cuba.

Additionally, the FAA has approved raising the annual limit of Starship launches from five to 25, concluding that the increased activity poses no significant threat to the environment—despite concerns voiced by environmental groups.