SpaceX’s Starship rocket successfully completes test flight

By Ovunc Kutlu

ISTANBUL (AA) - American spacecraft manufacturer SpaceX's Starship rocket successfully completed its test flight Thursday.

The most powerful rocket ever built was launched from the private Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, at 8.50 a.m. EDT.

Apart from the upper spacecraft, the Starship's rocket booster is known as Super Heavy, which stands 232 feet (70.7 meters) tall with 33 Raptor engines at its base that can produce 16.7 million pounds (8,350 tons) of thrust.

The launch was livestreamed on X, where SpaceX wrote during the test flight: "Starship’s Raptor engines have ignited during hot-staging separation. Super Heavy is executing the flip maneuver and boostback burn.”

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk later wrote on his account: "Despite loss of many tiles and a damaged flap, Starship made it all the way to a soft landing in the ocean!"