By BlueShift | 2025-09-08

The recent success of Starship's 10th test flight marks a big step forward for NASA's Artemis program, which plans to use the spacecraft to send humans to the moon in 2027.

SpaceX hailed the August 26 launch from Starbase, at the southern tip of the US state of Texas, as a "significant step forward in developing the world’s first fully reusable launch vehicle."

"Every major objective was met, providing critical data to inform designs of the next generation Starship and Super Heavy," it said.

Super Heavy is the first stage, or booster, of the launch system, while Starship is the fully reusable spacecraft. The two components are collectively referred to as Starship.

Starship is the most powerful launch vehicle ever built, capable of carrying up to 150 metric tons fully reusable and 250 metric tons expendable.

It is a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the moon, Mars and beyond.

"Over the course of a flight test campaign, success will continue to be measured by what we are able to learn," SpaceX said, noting that Starship’s 10th flight test provided valuable data by stressing the limits of vehicle capabilities.

The launch is widely considered to have put the SpaceX program back on track after a string of highly-publicized failures.

Valuable data

"This was a great day for SpaceX, executing its full mission for the first time and deploying some test dummy satellites along the route," Open University planetary scientist Simeon Barber told the BBC.

SpaceX will have gathered a full set of data from take-off, cruising and landing, which is a big step forward for the company, he said.

"This is also a big step forward for NASA's Artemis program, but there's still a lot of development work to happen to get this spacecraft ready and to be rated to carry humans safely to the moon," Barber added.

It was not all smooth sailing, as some heat tiles fell away and a small section of a flap burned off during the vessel's fiery descent, AFP reported.

But SpaceX communications manager Dan Huot said much of this was expected, as the vehicle was intentionally flown on a punishing trajectory with some tiles removed.

"We're kind of being mean to this starship a little bit," he said on the webcast. "We're really trying to put it through the paces and kind of poke on what some of its weak points are."

Despite recent setbacks, Starship was not seen as being at a crisis point, with SpaceX's "fail fast, learn fast" philosophy already giving it a commanding lead in launches with its Falcon rockets.

Yet major challenges loom, with SpaceX founder Elon Musk identifying developing a fully reusable orbital heat shield as the toughest task.

Another hurdle is proving Starship can be refueled in orbit with super-cooled propellant, an essential but untested step for the vehicle to carry out deep-space missions.

Sustained lunar exploration

SpaceX is one of three US companies NASA has chosen to develop the human landers that will land astronauts on the moon as part of the Artemis program.

The other awardees for NASA’s Human Landing System contracts are Blue Origin and Dynetics, each of which have offered distinct lander and mission designs.

The variety will "drive a broader range of technology development and, ultimately, more sustainability for lunar surface access," according to NASA.

Human landers are the final piece of the transportation chain required for sustainable human exploration of the moon, which includes the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, and the Gateway outpost in lunar orbit.

Sustained lunar exploration requires a complex, multi-stage system of reusable vehicles and infrastructure that moves humans, cargo and resources between Earth, lunar orbit and the moon's surface.

Several Starships serve distinct purposes in enabling human landing missions, each based on the common Starship design.

A propellant storage Starship will park in low-Earth orbit to be supplied by tanker Starships, while the human-rated Starship will launch to the storage unit in Earth orbit, fuel up, and continue to lunar orbit.