SpaceX Starship Completes All Major Objectives on 10th Test Flight, Deploys Payload for the First Time
On the evening of August 26, 2025, SpaceX's Starship completed its 10th integrated flight test from Starbase in Cameron County, Texas, with the company saying the flight achieved all of its major objectives, including the first deployment of a payload in space.
Starship lifted off at 6:30 p.m. Central Time, with all 33 Raptor engines of the Super Heavy booster igniting, followed by hot staging. During its return, the booster performed a landing burn in which one center engine was deliberately shut down and a backup engine used to finish the burn, then hovered before splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America).
After a full-duration ascent burn into a suborbital trajectory, the ship opened its payload door and released eight Starlink simulator satellites, Starship's first payload deployment demonstration. The ship also completed a second in-space Raptor relight. During reentry, SpaceX deliberately stressed the ship's heat shield and structure. Guided by its four flaps, the ship then performed a landing flip, a landing burn and a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean, ending a flight of about 66 minutes and 30 seconds.
The flight had been postponed twice: a ground systems leak scrubbed the August 24 attempt, and weather delayed the August 25 attempt. Starship's seventh flight in January and eighth flight in March of this year both ended with the ship lost during ascent; on this 10th flight, payload deployment, the in-space relight and the controlled splashdown were all completed in a single mission.
(Source: SpaceX)
Source: SpaceX
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：星舰超重型助推器返回发射塔附近的试验画面（资料图，摄于第五次综合试飞）。Steve Jurvetson 摄，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。/ File photo: A Super Heavy booster descends toward the launch tower during a test flight (fifth integrated flight test). Photo by Steve Jurvetson, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
