Article cover: SpaceX’s Starship Flight Test 10 featuring deployment of Starlink satellites and an explosion in the engine compartment at 47min of flight (Ren@art, SpaceX, 26 August 2025).
SpaceX’s Starship test flight 10 launched on 26th August 2025 from Starbase in Texas, USA. The spacecraft reached orbit, released Starlink satellite dummies and returned to the surface performing a controlled vertical hover before a soft splash into the Indian ocean. Meanwhile, the Super Heavy booster tested an engine failure scenario and splashed vertically on the Gulf of Mexico.
Every major objective was met and the data obtained will inform upcoming generations of Starship. This success was welcomed by all teams who saw three consecutive Starship failures this year.
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Updates
07 September 2025: Flight Test 11 in progress.29 August 2025: Starship's Splashdown.
Background
Spaceship Flight Test 10.Launch broadcast and events.
Elon's view of the future.
Starlink update.
UPDATES
Starship Flight Test 11 in progress
– 07 September 2025
Starship’s static engine fire test was a success at Starbase. This is part of the system test in preparation for Flight Test 11.
Meanwhile, the Booster system passed its 500th successful autonomous landing on a drone ship after the launch of another orbital flight, Falcon 9, that delivered a “Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture” satellite, part of the global military communications and missile tracking and warning project (SpaceX, X, 2025).
Starship performing a static engine fire in preparation for Flight Test 11 (SpaceX, X, 07 September 2025).
Falcon 9’s first stage booster landed on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship (SpaceX, X, 10 September 2025).
--O--
SpaceX pictures of Starship – 29 August 2025
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk shared Starship splashdown photos on X.
Video and photos captured by a pre-placed buoy in the Indian Ocean show the amazing feat of engineering. Starship touched the ocean within 3 metres of the calculated location.
Watch the videos and images in SpaceX’s X post from 28 August 2025. Available at https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1961165064666312956 (Opens on a new tab).
Starship hovering over the Indian Ocean after a successful flip to vertical. (SpaceX, 2025).
Starship tilts to perform a soft splashdown on the Indian Ocean. (SpaceX, 2025).
--O--
Booster catch video by the public – August 2025
A Booster Catch video was shared on YouTube Shorts. The amazing spectacle was captured by the public from outside Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas. Although this was part of Flight Test 8 (06 March 2025), it is an example of people’s response to an astonishing feat of engineering.
END of UPDATES
BACKGROUND
Starship Flight Test 10
Starship’s 10th flight test launched from Starbase launchpad in Bocachica, Texas, USA in the evening of 26 August 2025. The ship reached orbit and together with the booster returned safely to the surface splashing on the ocean. Lessons learned will shape a new generation of booster and perfect the ship that one day will take humans away from Earth.
Starship on the launchpad at Starbase, Bocachica, Texas, USA (SpaceX, 2025).
Flight preparation
Ship 37 underwent various modifications after the last 3 failures and underwent cryogenic testing in May 2025. It carried a new Raptor Vacuum engine, and all engines were tested days before the flight. On the launch pad, Ship 37 has a matt-black colour due to the heat shield that covers the underside of the vehicle.
Superheavy Booster 16 completed cryogenic testing in February and fire testing of its 33 engines in June. On the launch pad, Booster 16 is the shiny portion of the Spaceship made of stainless steel. Because this portion does not exit the atmosphere, it does not need a re-entry shield.
The Booster and the Ship’s main structures are made of a special alloy of stainless steel that is more resilient and resistant than aluminium, capable of withstanding the heat of the engines and re-entry. Stainless still is not painted because of the instability of paint to cryogenic testing and high levels of heat.
Once Starship was on the launch pad, 1hr 15min before launch, preparations for flight started when the Flight Director called to verify “go” for propellant load; Liquid methane and oxygen were loaded onto the ship while fuel and liquid oxygen were loaded onto the booster; The Raptor engines were chilled for 19 minutes before the Flight Director verified “go” for launch. Flame deflectors were activated at the last 10 seconds of countdown and Raptors ignited for Launch pushing Starship into the sky.
Flight plan
Max Q (peak aerodynamic stress on the rocket) was reached 1 minute into the ascent. Hot-staging and stage separation followed at 2 minutes, from then on the two vehicles followed different plans.
Booster performed a Boostback burn at 2min 48sec, the Hot-stage was jettisoned at 3min and 3 minutes later, Superheavy performed a Landing burn at 6min 20 seconds, just before water landing.
Booster flight sequence during Starship Flight Test 10, ending in a successful water landing (SpaceX, 2025).
After separation, Ship continued its route to lower orbit, shutting down its engines at 9 minutes. Payload deployment of dummy Starlink satellites started 18 minutes into the flight and at 37 minutes a Raptor engine was successfully re-lit in space. Ship re-entry started at 47 minutes and flight was under control at 1 hour. Landin flip took place at 1ht 6min, landing burn 20 seconds later and water landing 10 seconds after.
Ship flight sequence during Starship Flight Test 10, ending in a successful water landing (SpaceX, 2025).
Launch broadcast and events
The Mission originally planned for late June, was ready to launch on 24th August, but it was delayed two days because of a leak and unfavourable weather.
Starship’s test 10 launch was broadcast by SpaceX hosted by Dan Huot, Communications team and Amanda Lee, Build reliability engineer.
Launch of Starship Flight Test 10 at 00.00.00 on 26 August 2025 (SpaceX, 2025).
Starship’s liftoff from Starbase launchpad. Flight Test 10 (SpaceX, 2025).
Ascent of Starship Flight Test 10. Bocachica, Texas, USA in the background (SpaceX, 2025).
33 Raptor engines alight during the ascent of Starship Flight Test 10 (SpaceX, 2025).
The 33 booster engines ignited at launch and during ascent, one of them shut down and did not relight. On its return to the surface, the booster an “Engine-out landing burn” scenario; one of the engines was intentionally disabled forcing the autonomous system to use the closest engine from the 10-engine inner ring as a backup. The test was successful, and the booster briefly hovered vertically over the ocean before cutting-off power and splashing down.
Superheavy Booster jettisoning the hot stage at the beginning of its descent (SpaceX, 2025).
Booster hovering over the Gulf of America at the end of landing boost, moments before splashdown (SpaceX, 2025).
Ship 37 tested the deployment of 8 Starlink simulators and performed the second in-space re-light of a Raptor engine while in orbit. During re-entry, at 90km of altitude (47min), an explosion occurred in the engine compartment damaging the Aft-Skirt although it didn’t seem to interfere with the performance of the engines. There was also visible damage of part of the flaps, which survived re-entry and remained functional, fully assisting the landing manoeuvres.
Starship in orbit. View of the extended right bottom flap (SpaceX, 2025).
Starlink deployment. Dummy satellites on the rack while one is being pushed out of Ship through a slit opening on the right side of the hull (arrow) (SpaceX, 2025).
SpaceX staff celebrate the completion of the Starlink deployment demonstration (SpaceX, 2025).
Raptor engine E3 successfully relights in the vacuum of space (SpaceX, 2025).
Explosion in the engine compartment, engines undamaged (following cover photo of this article) (SpaceX, 2025).
Damage aft edge of left bottom flap, seen during re-entry. Notice plasma coloration (SpaceX, 2025).
After the landing flip, the ship conducted landing burn to complete a controlled vertical landing, hovering over the ocean and slowly tipping into the water. Ship 37 was terminated with a calculated explosion to eliminate the need of recovery. Video of the landing captured by a pre-positioned buoy demonstrated that splash down occurred where it was planned.
Starship hovers, splashes down and explodes, ending Flight Test 10 (SpaceX, 2025).
SpaceX staff celebrating a successful Flight Test 10, Starbase (SpaceX, 2025).
Elon's view of the future
Elon Musk interviewed before Launch Test 10. Broadcast host Dan Huot (left) and Bill Riley commented about the test and the future (SpaceX, 2025).
Elon Musk, Chief engineer of SpaceX, and Bill Riley, Vice-President of Starship Engineering were interviewed before the launch. Elon commented that the reason to develop this technology is that the future of humanity is to become a multi-planetary species and to expand beyond Earth for two main reasons:
- To extend the long-term survival and prosperity of the species and its consciousness.
- To have and inspiring and exciting goal that give you a reason to live.
We will need to build thousands of ships per year to transport sufficient material to construct a self-sustaining city on Mars.
Starship entering the Martian atmosphere in the future 2025 (SpaceX, 2025).
The future of downloading material from Starships on Mars (SpaceX, 2025).
A test of endurance along the road will be when the Mars city becomes able of surviving even if the re-supply ships stop coming from Earth, be it following a cataclysm, the subsiding of civilisation or other reason. A conservative estimate is that building that city will take at least a million tons of processed material transported to Mars.
Building the first city on Mars (SpaceX, 2025).
Elon Musk commented on a future ship factory. Starship has to be a massively produced system featuring an efficient heatshield so that the spacecraft could be flown immediately after landing. Boosters will be reused within an hour of landing and the most efficient way of putting these gigantic parts together is if both, the booster and the ship land vertically and are captured by the tower’s arms. In this way, they can be re-assembled and ready to fly the same day. Currently, the booster comes back within 7 minutes and can already be refilled in less than the hour, therefore, SpaceX is getting there.
Future launchpads
Launch pad 37 in Florida, which supported Apollo lunar programme in the 1960s, will be upgraded to build two Starship launch pads for future missions, expecting up to 76 launches and 152 landings per year.
At Kennedy Space Centre, SpaceX is building “Gigabay”, the tallest rapid assembly and integration facility to date, capable of housing multiple Starships simultaneously.
At launch complex 39A, SpaceX is building infrastructure to support up to 44 launches and 88 landings a year. With the 2 complexes in Florida, SpaceX will have the ability to fly 130 starships per year in addition to flights from Starbase.
Location reference map of Kennedy Space Centre and launchpads 37 and 39A (highlighted), Florida, USA(NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Bus Route, 2025).
Future view of refurbished Launch Pad 37 in Florida, USA, prepared for SpaceX’s vehicles (SpaceX, 2025).
Future of Gigabay a giant rocket assembly building at Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, USA (SpaceX, 2025).
Starlink update
Tyler Lionquist, Starlink business analyst, explained that the Starlink satellite network is vital for communications with Starship. The spacecraft has 4 terminals for superfast transmission that ensures live broadcast of data and video even while she is re-entering the atmosphere, a period of crucial 7 minutes that previous crafts went through in radio silence
Satellites are built at Starlink’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington, USA, from where the entire network is monitored.
Akash Badshah, Senior Director of Satellite Engineering, commented that 2 out 3 current satellites in orbit are Starlink satellites. There are over 8000 Starlink satellites in operation at present, connected using lasers for a low latency, high-speed data transfer. Each antenna is composed of many smaller antennas forming what is called a “Phased array antenna”.
Cornelia Rosu, Senior Director of Starlink Production, mentioned that manufacturing is slow, it takes months to build each satellite, and they are all tested for quality before packing and launch.
When Spaceship was in orbit, 8 Starlink simulators were released to demonstrate the feasibility of a controlled gate opening on the side of the ship and a robotic release of a stack of dummy satellites. Each Starlink that takes its position in orbit and connects to the network adds 60TB/sec of data transmission capacity.
Starlink factory and headquarters, Redmond, WA, USA. Staff and graphic from early 2020 (SpaceX, 2025).
Current Starlink receiver kit price ranges from £190 to £300 and service £50 to £75/month, roaming and residential respectively. Available at https://www.starlink.com/gb.
REFERENCES
» SpaceX (2025) Starship’s Tenth Flight Test. SpaceX [Online article]. Available at SpaceX. Accessed: 30 August 2025.
» Wikipedia (2025) Starship flight test 10. Wikipedia [Online article]. Available at Wikipedia. Accessed: 28 August 2025.
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