Elon Musk's Starship spacecraft successfully deployed simulated Starlink satellites for the first time in its 10th test flight

On August 26th, Elon Musk's SpaceX launched its massive Starship rocket on its tenth test flight, aiming to overcome development setbacks and achieve a long-sought technological milestone crucial to a reusable Mars rocket design.

The 403-foot-tall (123-meter-tall) Starship system blasted off from SpaceX's Starbase in South Texas around 7:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday (August 26), with a mission to test the spacecraft's new thermal tiles and satellite deployment capabilities, as well as hundreds of other upgrades from past iterations.

After liftoff, the rocket's upper half separated from the Super Heavy booster as planned. Super Heavy, the 232-foot-tall first-stage booster, typically returns to Earth in the launch tower's massive traction arms, but on Tuesday it aimed for the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, showcasing an alternate landing engine configuration.

Meanwhile, the Starship spacecraft entered space on a trajectory destined for the Indian Ocean, where it prepared to splash down after enduring the intense heat of re-entry. This is a crucial phase of testing, one that has previously failed.

Shortly after arriving in space, the Starship spacecraft's "Pez" satellite deployment system deployed a simulated Starlink satellite for the first time, a milestone SpaceX had either canceled or failed to achieve in past tests.