SpaceX’s 12th Starship test flight scored a rare victory, deploying dummy satellites into orbit, but exposed critical technical holes that the company must address before it can make an expected $75 billion public market debut.
Friday’s launch from Starbase, Texas marked a pivotal moment, but the flight’s mixed results underscore how much work remains before Starship can reliably carry people and cargo to space.
The rocket took off at 6:30 PM ET and hit Mach 7 before doing the whole “splashdown” thing in the Indian Ocean. Still, the mission showed what SpaceX couldn’t accomplish: the first Super Heavy stage failed almost immediately after separation, and strange engine problems during relighting scorched quite a large portion of the booster.
The upper stage tipped over and exploded on impact, which was more or less expected, but it also kind of hides the larger propulsion goals that the company failed to achieve.
In its IPO filing, SpaceX noted that Starship “is designed to deliver 100 tons to Earth orbit in a fully reusable configuration.” However, on Friday the test did not meet the propulsion benchmarks needed to demonstrate that the revised engines are ready for safe orbital missions AND landings. And that matters because NASA wants to use Starship to land astronauts on the moon in 2028, but with results like this, that timeline is now starting to look questionable.
Even with the booster’s problems, SpaceX still managed to release a number of fake Starlink satellites, which more or less proved the vehicle’s main capabilities. The company says it deployed more than 3,000 satellites on 122 Falcon 9 missions last year.
Now Starship, the largest rocket ever built, is slated to move even more satellites per trip, accelerating the buildout of Starlink’s wireless Internet constellation, with the work generating billions in revenue. It is basically designed to make the expansion process less slow.
This test flight emerged about seven months after a series of explosions halted tests in early 2025, when debris disrupted air traffic near the launch site. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman was there Friday, a sort of symbolic vote of confidence, but these propulsion issues have people wondering whether SpaceX can actually stay on track with its aggressive timelines and also with what investors expect, especially as it tries to secure public financing.
The test flight came seven months after a series of explosions halted tests in early 2025, when debris disrupted air traffic near the launch site. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman attended the launch Friday in a symbolic show of confidence, but the propulsion failures are raising questions about whether SpaceX can meet its aggressive timelines and investor expectations as it seeks public financing.
