SpaceX, billionaire Elon Musk's company, successfully tested the Starship V3 rocket on Friday, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, the BBC reports.
The unmanned Starship V3 rocket lifted off from Texas shortly after 5:30 p.m. (00:30 Saturday, Romanian time) on Friday, two days after Elon Musk announced he would list the company on the stock exchange, which is expected to be the largest in Wall Street history. This could start next month.
Thanks to the shares Musk will own in SpaceX, which is valued at $1.25 trillion, the listing could make him the first trillionaire in history.
Friday's test flight lasted about an hour and ended when the Starship crashed into the Indian Ocean and exploded as planned. Once in space, the Starship deployed 20 dummy satellites before re-entering the atmosphere.
This was the 12th flight of a SpaceX rocket, which featured the latest model (V3) at a height of 124 meters – the equivalent of more than 40 stories.
The first Starship rocket launch attempt on Thursday was delayed due to a failure of the launch tower.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman congratulated Musk and the SpaceX team. “One step closer to the moon…one step closer to Mars,” he posted on X.
SpaceX doesn't just make rockets, it also owns a satellite internet service called Starlink, as well as artificial intelligence firm xAI.
