SpaceX successfully launched its Version 3 Super Heavy-Starship rocket from Texas on Friday in a critical test flight for the company’s future.
The 407-foot-tall V3 Starship rocket, designed as the most powerful ever built, blasted off into space from the company’s Starbase facility. There were some issues with the booster, which crashed into the Gulf of America, but the upper-stage spacecraft made it past Earth’s atmosphere. The vehicle then splashed down into the Indian Ocean.
Recommended Stories
Musk congratulated SpaceX on the launch, saying, “You scored a goal for humanity.”
The mission marked the 12th test flight of the fully reusable rocket that Musk’s company is building to transport people to Mars, but will first compete to send astronauts to the moon in future NASA Artemis lunar missions.
The launch, as NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman put it after the test flight, brings Elon Musk‘s aerospace company “one step closer” to the moon and Mars.
SpaceX is competing with Blue Origin, founded by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, to develop separate landers for NASA’s upcoming lunar missions. NASA will test both systems for the Artemis III mission in 2027. Both companies are supposed to launch a successful unpiloted lunar landing mission before astronauts land on the moon in 2028.
Meanwhile, SpaceX is racing toward an initial public offering that is expected to be one of the largest market debuts ever.
Ahead of its June 12 target date, the historic IPO would enable Musk to become the world’s first trillionaire by raising up to $80 billion from investors. The deal is anticipated to be the largest IPO, surpassing the 2020 debut of Saudi Aramco on the public market, with $29.4 billion raised from investors.
SpaceX is targeting an estimated valuation between $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion. The company was previously valued at $1.25 trillion after acquiring Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI earlier this year.
More than 100 fund managers visited the Starbase facility in Texas last month as questions remained about the company’s financials. Musk was present for the investors’ tour of the company town, according to the Wall Street Journal.
SPACEX CONFIRMS IPO FILING AFTER MUSK’S OPENAI COURT LOSS
The Starship rocket is an essential component of SpaceX’s blockbuster IPO. In a securities filing unveiled this week, the company said it has invested more than $15 billion in Starship over the years.
The vehicle is designed to deploy Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit. SpaceX has not done that yet with its Starship rocket, but that goal may be achieved soon. The company is aiming to have the Starship rocket deploy Starlink satellites in the second half of 2026.
