SpaceX successfully launched its Starship system on its 10th integrated flight test Tuesday, lifting off from the company’s Starbase site in Boca Chica, Texas, at 6:30 p.m. Central Time (23:30 UTC) after two consecutive scrubs earlier in the week. The 120-metre stack—Super Heavy Booster 16 topped by Ship 37—fired all 33 methane-fuelled Raptor engines and climbed away with about 10.8 million pounds of propellant. A hot-staging manoeuvre cleanly separated the stages; Super Heavy executed a boost-back burn and achieved a controlled splash-down in the Gulf of Mexico, while Starship completed its ascent burn and began coasting on its planned orbital trajectory. Flight 10 is the first Block-2 mission to meet its primary objectives after three failed attempts earlier this year. The latest countdown followed back-to-back postponements on 24 August, caused by a liquid-oxygen ground-system leak, and on 25 August, when electrically charged anvil clouds violated launch rules. The Federal Aviation Administration cleared Tuesday’s attempt after SpaceX implemented fixes required by the investigation into May’s Flight-9 mishap. Demonstrating reliable performance is critical for SpaceX as it develops a lunar-lander variant of Starship for NASA’s Artemis III mission, targeted for 2027, and pursues founder Elon Musk’s longer-term goal of enabling human missions to Mars. The company says one more Block-2 flight is planned before transitioning to an upgraded Block-3 vehicle. Starship’s milestone capped a busy stretch for SpaceX, which on Sunday flew its 50th Dragon mission—CRS-33—delivering more than 5,000 pounds of cargo to the International Space Station, and on Tuesday morning lofted OHB Italia’s NAOS Earth-observation satellite and seven rideshare payloads from Vandenberg, California. Competitor Rocket Lab also marked its 70th Electron launch on 23 August, underscoring the quickening pace of commercial access to orbit.