Coin Press - SpaceX sends Starship rocket sailing into space

The mammoth rocket blasted off into space at just after 5:30 pm local time (2230 GMT), kicking off the highly anticipated test flight that comes as Elon Musk's space company prepares a buzzy initial public offering.

The Super Heavy booster separated from the upper stage as expected, but company spokesperson Dan Huot said on the livestream of the event that the booster failed to complete its so-called boost-back burn.

The booster fell swiftly back to Earth uncontrolled into Gulf waters. SpaceX wasn't planning to recapture the booster anyway, but was still hoping for a precision return.

The vehicle was coasting through space but was not in exactly the correct orbit after one of its engines malfunctioned. It had burned its remaining five engines slightly longer to compensate.

"I wouldn't call it nominal orbital insertion," Huot said, but said that it was on a previously analyzed trajectory that was "within bounds."

Cheers rang out among SpaceX employees as the spacecraft began delivering a set of mock satellites, as well as two "specially modified Starlink satellites" outfitted with cameras, which will analyze the spacecraft's heat shield.

- Biggest ship yet -

Thursday's aborted trial featured several rounds of stopping and starting the countdown clock.

After it was determined that the last-minute glitches could not be addressed in time, Musk quickly posted on X that "the hydraulic pin holding the tower arm in place did not retract."

The thwarted attempt at the south Texas launchpad on Thursday came after SpaceX filed with US financial regulators to go public, likely in June, in what is expected to become a record IPO.

The launch offered a live-streamed look at SpaceX's progress in developing its enormous Starship rocket, a key component of its own ambitious plans as well as US space agency NASA's program to return to the Moon.

Friday marks Starship's 12th flight overall, but the first in seven months.

The latest design is bigger than its predecessor, standing at just over 407 feet (124 meters) when fully stacked.

The company, which aims to make Starship a fully reusable system, says the mission's primary goal is to demonstrate its redesigns in flight.

The most recent Starship missions have gone down as successful.

But previous tests have ended in spectacular explosions, including twice over the Caribbean and once after reaching space. Last June, the upper stage blew up in a ground test.

- NASA administrator onsite -

There's a lot riding on SpaceX's progress: the company is under contract with NASA to produce a modified version of Starship to serve as a lunar landing system.

The US space agency's Artemis program aims to return humans to the Moon, as China forges ahead with a rival effort that's targeting 2030 for its first crewed mission.

Ahead of launch, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman appeared during the pre-launch SpaceX program and said "we're looking forward to seeing this fly, because hopefully at some point in the not too distant future we're going to join up in Earth orbit."

Both SpaceX and rival Blue Origin, the Jeff Bezos-owned firm also vying to develop a lunar lander, have realigned their strategies to prioritize projects related to Moon missions.

NASA is aiming to test an in-orbit rendezvous between its spacecraft and one or two lunar landers in 2027 and carry out a crewed lunar landing before the end of 2028.

But a lot needs to happen before then -- and industry experts have voiced repeated skepticism that SpaceX and Blue Origin can achieve benchmarks in time.

H.Meyer--CPN