Congratulations to SpaceX for Opening a New Space Age
by Thomas Walker-Werth
The dream of humanity colonizing the solar system just got a whole lot closer to reality.
On August 26, 2025, SpaceX conducted the tenth test flight of its new spacecraft, Starship.[1] On its own, Starship is by far the largest manned spacecraft ever built, with an interior volume almost four times greater than NASA’s Space Shuttle (which, along with its near-identical Soviet copy, was many times larger than any other manned spacecraft). When joined to its “Super Heavy” booster, Starship is the largest rocket ever launched. The enormous power of the Starship/Super Heavy combination makes Starship capable of carrying humans directly to the Moon and Mars . . . if it can prove itself in testing.
But recent test flights have not gone as planned. Flights Seven, Eight, and Nine all ended in the ship being destroyed before the end of the mission. SpaceX is well known for its policy of embracing failure as a means of perfecting technology, intentionally flying high-risk test flights to discover faults rather than spending extra years on preflight research and modeling. This has enabled the company to rapidly develop the now highly reliable Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft. But this time many were asking if the Starship program—or even SpaceX itself—could survive a fourth setback.[2]
Fortunately, Flight Ten was an outstanding success, demonstrating many of the key capabilities that make Starship a turning point in the history of human spaceflight:
1. Full Reusability
Both of Starship’s major components—the ship itself and the Super Heavy booster—are designed to return safely to Earth for future reuse. This reusability, combined with the simplicity of only having two major components rather than several separate rocket stages and modules, will make Starship far more cost-efficient than other spacecraft. SpaceX is aiming for launch costs as low as $10 million per launch, a far cry from the $100 million cost of launching the European Space Agency’s new Ariane 6 rocket or the mindboggling $2.5 billion projected cost of launching NASA’s in-development “Space Launch System.”[3]
Flight Ten proved that both the Super Heavy booster and Starship itself can guide themselves to a safe splashdown in a specific area of ocean. The booster did so with one engine intentionally disabled, an example of how SpaceX is testing Starship’s ability to operate in high-stress situations, not merely under normal flight circumstances.
2. Engine Reignition
One of the key objectives of Flight Ten was reigniting Starship’s engines in space mid-flight. This is important because a key part of Starship’s ability to fly directly from Earth to the Moon and Mars is its ability to restart its engines in orbit after refueling. The refueling process itself will be a key element of future test flights, but Starship’s ability to reignite its engines in the vacuum of space proves that it is possible for a single manned vehicle to launch into Earth orbit and then start a new flight from there to destinations beyond Earth.
3. Controlled Reentry
Starship has an utterly different design from any previous manned spacecraft. Aside from NASA’s Space Shuttle, which was essentially a delta-wing airplane mounted on a rocket, all other manned orbital spacecraft have been small capsules that sit on top of large multistage rockets. Starship, however, is a much larger vehicle, shaped like a large bullet with four flaps protruding like small wings, two at the front and two at the back. This innovative design gives it not only the power of a large rocket during launch and deep-space flight, with large engines and a large internal capacity for cargo or passengers, but also a degree of controllability during atmospheric reentry—unlike capsule spacecraft, which fly ballistically through the atmosphere. (The Space Shuttle was also somewhat controllable during reentry, but it had small engines and no fuel tanks, relying on an external fuel tank to reach low Earth orbit and being unable to travel further into space or use its engines during landing.)
Flight Ten proved that Starship’s flaps can guide the ship during harsh reentry conditions—SpaceX intentionally subjected it to a hotter more complex reentry course than a normal flight would require—and that it can use its engines during descent to slow down and maneuver. The ship successfully altered its orientation and heading several times, and although it sustained some damage during reentry, it remained intact and fully controllable all the way to the ocean surface.
4. Large-Scale Payload Deployment
Flight Ten’s other major breakthrough was the successful deployment of eight dummy satellites in space. This marked Starship’s first successful payload deployment, a key demonstration of its ability to deliver satellites into orbit. Starship’s vast cargo capacity means that it can, in theory, deploy up to sixty Starlink satellites in a single flight. This huge carrying capacity will contribute greatly to the ship’s economic viability, with numerous customers being able to share a single flight instead of each requiring a separate launch.
***
All of Flight Ten’s breakthroughs are a testament to the effectiveness of SpaceX’s strategy of embracing failure, to its innovative approach to spacecraft design, and to Elon Musk’s vision for a human future in space. In fewer than twenty years since it became the first private company to launch a rocket into space, SpaceX has designed and proven a manned spacecraft with capabilities that were sheer science fiction only a few years ago.
SpaceX is already planning missions to send unmanned Starships to the Moon and Mars—within the next two years. Whether it will meet this aggressive time line remains to be seen, but the very fact that the people at SpaceX think in terms of how quickly they can achieve the next big feat, in contrast to NASA’s “no earlier than” approach to mission planning, speaks volumes about the company’s can-do attitude and pro-growth philosophy.
[1] Mike Wall, “SpaceX's Giant Starship Mars Rocket Nails Critical 10th Test Flight in Stunning Comeback,” Space.com, August 26, 2025, https://www.space.com/space-exploration/private-spaceflight/spacex-launches-starship-flight-10-critical-test-flight-video.
[2] “Elon Musk’s Starship Fails Again: Can His Mars Dream Survive Another Setback?,” First Post, May 28, 2025, https://www.firstpost.com/explainers/elon-musk-starship-failure-mars-plans-risk-spacex-nasa-13892360.html.
[3] Jon Martindale, “SpaceX Starship Flight 10 Delayed, Now Targeting Aug. 25,” ExtremeTech, August 25, 2025, https://www.extremetech.com/aerospace/spacex-starship-flight-10-delayed-now-targeting-aug-25#:~:text=But%20with%20the%20potential%20ability,to%20launch%20in%20the%20future; Jay Derr, “NASA Should Consider Switching to SpaceX Starship for Future Missions,” Reason Foundation, November 12, 2024, https://reason.org/commentary/nasa-should-consider-switching-to-spacex-starship-for-future-missions/#:~:text=Since%20its%20inception%20in%202011,to%20cost%20around%20%242%20billion.