SpaceX launched the latest test of its mega rocket Starship on Tuesday night and completed the first-ever deployment of a test payload — eight dummy satellites — into space. After just over an hour coasting through space, Starship splashed down as planned in the Indian Ocean.
Starship blasted off from Starbase, SpaceX’s launch site in South Texas, just after 6:30 p.m. It was the 10th test for the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket, which SpaceX and NASA hope to use to get astronauts back on the moon.
NASA has ordered two Starships to land astronauts on the moon later this decade, and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s ultimate goal is Mars.
No crew members were aboard the demo launch.
The test also included the successful return of the craft’s Super Heavy Booster, which splashed down in the Atlantic after testing a landing-burn engine sequence.
The Starship itself continued to orbit the Earth — passing from daylight in Texas through night and back into daytime again — ahead of the planned splashdown. Before the craft hit the waves, its engines fired, flipping its position so it entered the water upright with the nose cone pointed upward.
The successful demo came after a year of mishaps. Back-to-back tests in January and March ended just minutes after liftoff, raining wreckage into the ocean. The most recent test in May — the ninth try — ended when the spacecraft tumbled out of control and broke apart.
SpaceX later redesigned the Super Heavy booster with larger and stronger fins for greater stability, according to a company post on the social platform X this month.
The first Starship exploded minutes into its inaugural test flight in 2023.
SpaceX’s first batch of Starlink satellites were launched in 2019 from a Falcon rocket that lifted off from Cape Canaveral.
Latest launch of SpaceX’s Starship deploys 8 dummy satellites, then splashes down into Indian Ocean
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Latest launch of SpaceX’s Starship deploys 8 dummy satellites, then splashes down into Indian Ocean
- NASA has ordered two Starships to land astronauts on the moon later this decade
- No crew members were aboard the demo launch
Europeans push back at US over claim they face ‘civilizational erasure’
- “Contrary to what some may say, woke, decadent Europe is not facing civilizational erasure,” Kallas told the conference
MUNICH: A top European Union official on Sunday rejected the notion that Europe faces “civilizational erasure,” pushing back at criticism of the continent by the Trump administration.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas addressed the Munich Security Conference a day after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered a somewhat reassuring message to European allies. He struck a less aggressive tone than Vice President JD Vance did in lecturing them at the same gathering last year but maintained a firm tone on Washington’s intent to reshape the trans-Atlantic alliance and push its policy priorities.
Kallas alluded to criticism in the US national security strategy released in December, which asserted that economic stagnation in Europe “is eclipsed by the real and more stark prospect of civilizational erasure.” It suggested that Europe is being enfeebled by its immigration policies, declining birth rates, “censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition” and a “loss of national identities and self-confidence.”
“Contrary to what some may say, woke, decadent Europe is not facing civilizational erasure,” Kallas told the conference. “In fact, people still want to join our club and not just fellow Europeans,” she added, saying she was told when visiting Canada last year that many people there have an interest in joining the EU.
Kallas rejected what she called “European-bashing.”
“We are, you know, pushing humanity forward, trying to defend human rights and all this, which is actually bringing also prosperity for people. So that’s why it’s very hard for me to believe these accusations.”
In his conference speech, Rubio said that an end to the trans-Atlantic era “is neither our goal nor our wish,” adding that “our home may be in the Western hemisphere, but we will always be a child of Europe.”
He made clear that the Trump administration is sticking to its guns on issues such as migration, trade and climate. And European officials who addressed the gathering made clear that they in turn will stand by their values, including their approach to free speech, climate change and free trade.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Saturday that Europe must defend “the vibrant, free and diverse societies that we represent, showing that people who look different to each other can live peacefully together, that this isn’t against the tenor of our times.”
“Rather, it is what makes us strong,” he said.
Kallas said Rubio’s speech sent an important message that America and Europe are and will remain intertwined.
“It is also clear that we don’t see eye to eye on all the issues and this will remain the case as well, but I think we can work from there,” she said.
