SOUTH PADRE ISLAND: SpaceX&#39;s Starship spacecraft splashed down into the Indian ocean Friday after the company performed a test flight of the latest version of the enormous rocket. The voyage was not without a few glitches, but SpaceX employees shown on a livestream roared in delight following the trial flight that comes as the firm prepares a potentially record initial public offering. The mammoth rocket blasted off into space at just after 5:30 pm local time (2230 GMT). The company did not intend to recover either the booster or the upper stage, and the final splashdown was fiery but controlled, as planned. &quot;Splashdown confirmed! Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on the twelfth flight test of Starship!&quot; the company wrote on X. The third-generation Starship spacecraft carried out a maneuver that saw it flip upright and reignite its engines for control, despite one being out of commission. It also deployed its 22 mock satellites, including two that attempted to photograph the spacecraft&#39;s heat shield for analysis. The vehicle had coasted through space but was not in exactly the correct orbit after one of its engines malfunctioned during an initial burn. &quot;I wouldn&#39;t call it nominal orbital insertion,&quot; company spokesperson Dan Huot said, adding however that it was &quot;within bounds&quot; of a previously analyzed trajectory. After the Super Heavy booster separated from the upper stage as expected, Huot said on the livestream that the booster failed to complete its so-called boost-back burn. The booster fell swiftly back to Earth, uncontrolled, into the Gulf of Mexico. SpaceX wasn&#39;t planning to recapture the booster anyway, but was still hoping for a precision return. NASA administrator onsite Friday&#39;s flight followed an aborted trial one day prior. The countdown clock stopped and started until it was determined that the last-minute red flags could not be addressed in time. Musk quickly posted on X that &quot;the hydraulic pin holding the tower arm in place did not retract.&quot; SpaceX said that issue was corrected overnight. The company is facing extra scrutiny after SpaceX filed earlier this week with US financial regulators to go public, likely in June, in what is expected to become a record IPO. Friday marks Starship&#39;s 12th flight overall, but the first in seven months. The latest design is bigger than its predecessor, standing at just over 124 meters when fully stacked. There&#39;s a lot riding on SpaceX&#39;s progress: the company is under contract with NASA to produce a modified version of Starship to serve as a lunar landing system. The US space agency&#39;s Artemis program aims to return humans to the Moon, as China forges ahead with a rival effort that&#39;s targeting 2030 for its first crewed mission. Ahead of launch, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman appeared during the pre-launch SpaceX program and said &quot;we&#39;re looking forward to seeing this fly, because hopefully at some point in the not-too-distant future we&#39;re going to join up in Earth orbit.&quot; Both SpaceX and rival Blue Origin, the Jeff Bezos-owned firm also vying to develop a lunar lander, have realigned their strategies to prioritize projects related to Moon missions. NASA is aiming to test an in-orbit rendezvous between its spacecraft and one or two lunar landers in 2027 and carry out a crewed lunar landing before the end of 2028. But a lot needs to happen before then &ndash; and industry experts have voiced repeated skepticism that SpaceX and Blue Origin can achieve benchmarks in time.

Americas

SpaceX’s Starship completes its 12th test flight with a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean after minor malfunctions, as the company advances its lunar and commercial space ambitions.

SpaceX's enormous Starship splashes down after test flight

WASHINGTON: Blue Origin, the US space company of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, on Sunday will reuse a booster for the first time to launch its massive New Glenn rocket. The novel approach comes amid fierce competition between Bezos&#39;s firm and fellow tech titan <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/after-artemis-ii-nasa-looks-to-spacex-blue-origin-for-moon-landings" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">Elon Musk&#39;s SpaceX</a>, and a successful outing Sunday could up the pace and lower the cost of future Blue Origin launches. At nearly 100 meters (about 328 feet) tall, the New Glenn is slated for liftoff from Florida&#39;s Cape Canaveral sometime between 6:45 am (1045 GMT) and 8:45 am. It will carry a communications satellite for the company AST SpaceMobile. The company has launched the New Glenn twice before, but only with new rocket boosters. It has launched its far smaller New Shepard rocket, primarily used for suborbital space tourism, with reused components before in a less technically challenging operation. In November, Blue Origin recovered a New Glenn booster for the first time, succeeding in the complex technical challenge that culminated with a controlled vertical landing on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean. A previous attempt in January 2025 to recover the booster was unsuccessful after its engines failed to reignite during descent. The booster that will be used in Sunday&#39;s launch was refurbished after its previous flight. For this first reuse, the company replaced all of its engines and made a few other modifications. After liftoff, the rocket&#39;s two stages will separate at altitude. The upper stage will continue its journey carrying the satellite into space, while the booster will descend and attempt to land on a barge. The operation&#39;s performance will be closely watched, as the New Glenn is at the heart of Bezos&#39;s space ambitions. He is notably competing with Musk in NASA&#39;s Artemis lunar program, with their respective space companies both developing lunar landers for the US space agency. The United States is doubling down on efforts to return astronauts to the surface of the Moon in 2028, before the end of President Donald Trump&#39;s term and a deadline set by Chinese rivals.

This Blue Origin handout photo, obtained on April 17, 2026, shows Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket at Launch Complex 36 at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on April 12, 2026. (File photo: AFP)

Gadgets

The novel approach comes amid fierce competition between Bezos's firm and fellow tech titan Elon Musk's SpaceX, and a successful outing Sunday could up the pace and lower the cost of future Blue Origin launches.

Articles tagged with "Blue Origin"

SpaceX's enormous Starship splashes down after test flight

Blue Origin set to launch rocket with reusable booster for first time

SpaceX's enormous Starship splashes down after test flight