Starship V3 completed its first full test flight on Friday, launching from SpaceX's Starbase in South Texas at 5:30 pm CDT and splashing down in the Indian Ocean roughly one hour later. The 408-foot rocket, powered by 33 methane-fueled engines, is the largest ever built.
Both predecessors failed on their debut flights. V1 and V2 broke apart during launch in 2023 and 2025 respectively. V3 hitting its Indian Ocean target intact is a meaningful baseline, not a celebration.
The full article is worth reading for the specifics on what did not go perfectly, which the headline signals clearly with 'still a work in progress.' The gap between a successful splashdown and an operational vehicle is where the real story lives.
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