After four consecutive failures, Elon Musk's Starship finally achieved success, but Mars is still a long way off.

Early this morning (August 27th) Beijing time, Elon Musk's 10th test flight of Starship finally achieved a crucial success!

Starship S37 on the launch pad | SpaceX

Starship is a project that SpaceX has dedicated all its efforts to. It is known as the largest rocket in human history. Its goal is to achieve full reusability of orbital - class launch vehicles and ultimately send humans to the moon and even Mars.

However, for this large rocket, the year 2025 has truly been a bad year.

At the beginning of the year, Elon Musk was full of confidence. He hoped that, riding on the success of the previous "chopsticks - catching rocket" method for recovering the first stage, Starship could "accomplish great things" this year. However, reality quickly gave him a " triple blow to the head."

First, on January 17th, the first second - generation Starship spacecraft, numbered S33, failed before the second - stage shutdown.

The "fiery meteor shower" caused by the disintegration of the second stage during the 7th test flight of Starship | James Temple

Then, on March 7th, the second - generation Starship numbered S34 made a comeback but failed at almost the same time after launch, causing an outcry.

During the 8th test flight of Starship, an online - circulated picture shows that multiple engine nozzles are missing | Image source: Internet

On May 28th, the Starship numbered S35 embarked on its journey again. Although it managed to reach the shutdown stage this time, the Starship then began to spin continuously, and the signal was lost during the re - entry process.

During the 9th test flight of Starship, the Starship continuously ejected gas after shutdown | SpaceX

So far, the three launches of the second - generation Starship have all failed.

That's not all. Just when Elon Musk still insisted that every explosion was getting closer to success, on June 18th, the Starship S36, originally scheduled for the 10th test flight, suddenly exploded during the ground ignition test preparation at the McGregor Test Site.

The sudden explosion of S36 during the ground test | NASASpaceflight

Under the soaring fire, not only was the Starship spacecraft completely destroyed, but the test stand was also in a mess, directly paralyzing the test process.

The McGregor Test Site was in a mess after the explosion | Jordan Guidry

As we all know, SpaceX has "blown up" its way forward. However, four consecutive explosions are already the worst test - launch record for this company. As SpaceX's all - in rocket project, Starship has no way back.

Therefore, today's launch, under great pressure, is not just a test flight but also a "turnaround battle" that determines the fate of the Starship project.

The Starship S37 and the Super Heavy Booster B16 during final assembly | NasaSpaceFlight

A textbook - style "turnaround battle"

At 7:30 am Beijing time today (6:30 pm local time on August 26th), the first - stage "Super Heavy Booster" of the Starship numbered B16, carrying the fifth second - generation Starship spacecraft numbered S37, roared into the sky.

Today's test flight is equivalent to a "comeback" of the 7th, 8th, and 9th flights. The overall launch steps are basically the same as before, still a trans - atmospheric sub - orbital launch.

A schematic diagram of the entire process of the 10th test flight of Starship | Tony Bela

Since the B16 booster, as the first stage, is an old model about to be phased out, SpaceX did not plan to use the iconic "chopsticks" system to recover it. Instead, they arranged a bolder test task for it.

During the ascent, one Raptor engine of B16 shut down and did not reignite later, but this "small accident" did not affect this test flight.

After completing the boosting task, B16 attempted a highly difficult " two - engine deceleration landing" during the return process. It deliberately shut down one central engine and switched to another inner - ring engine for emergency use to perform the final deceleration.

It precisely aimed at a virtual target point on the sea, completed the entire deceleration process, and finally safely fell into the sea. The significance of this test lies in clarifying the performance boundaries of the Super Heavy Booster under extreme conditions and providing valuable data for future recoveries.

The real highlight is the S37 as the second stage. After its three predecessors disintegrated in the air one after another and another predecessor was completely destroyed during the ground test, this second - generation Starship spacecraft finally lived up to expectations.

After successfully igniting and entering the pre - determined trajectory, S37 successfully opened the payload bay door and released 8 simulated Starlink satellites, proving its core ability to send cargo into space.

Subsequently, S37 successfully conducted an in - orbit ignition test, once again proving its ability to leave orbit actively, laying the foundation for the next test flight to truly enter the orbit around the Earth.

Next comes the thrilling part of re - entering the atmosphere. To collect as much data as possible, the engineers conducted some extremely bold experiments on S37 this time: They deliberately removed some heat - resistant tiles on the side of the spacecraft facing the high - temperature airflow, exposing the hull. At the same time, they also installed new metal heat - resistant tiles and new heat - resistant tiles with an "active cooling function" for testing. Smoother heat - resistant tiles were also used at the edges to prevent heat accumulation. In addition, formal second - stage capture points that can bear the load were installed to collect data on temperature changes and structural stability.

At an altitude of nearly 90 kilometers, the Starship spacecraft encountered another "accident". The bottom engine compartment exploded, causing an exclamation in the live - broadcast room.

Fortunately, this explosion did not damage the engine. Although part of the flap on one side was damaged, it did not affect the subsequent test flight. Finally, S37 withstood the test of thousands of degrees of high temperature, successfully passed through the atmosphere, and achieved a soft landing on the sea surface in the pre - determined area of the Indian Ocean.

It can be said that S37 completed all the pre - determined test items in one go, and these goals should have been achieved during the first flight of the second - generation Starship in January this year. After stumbling for half a year, the Starship project finally got back on track with this beautiful turnaround battle.

Getting scammed four times, each time in a different way

Before today's success, what setbacks did Starship encounter? Let's be "Monday morning quarterbacks" and review the specific reasons for the previous four consecutive explosions. You will find that SpaceX has stepped into one pit after another, and each time it's a different one.

The failure of the 9th test flight, at least the failure of the first - stage recovery, can be said to be SpaceX's own " over - reach."

At that time, after the first stage of the rocket completed its boosting task, SpaceX wanted to test whether the booster could re - enter the atmosphere at an extremely steep angle. As a result, the booster suddenly disintegrated before the final landing ignition and failed to complete the soft landing on the sea.

In the live - broadcast footage of the 9th flight, the first stage exploded into a fireball at the moment of landing ignition | SpaceX

The investigation report shows that the re - entry angle of attack of the rocket body reached a maximum of 17 degrees, which put excessive pressure on the rocket body, causing the tunnel pipe for transporting propellants in the storage tank to rupture and leak. Methane and liquid oxygen mixed abnormally in the storage tank, and then an explosion occurred.

However, the significance of this extreme test lies in clarifying the actual limits of the existing design, so it can be said that the goal was exactly achieved. Subsequently, either limit based on this or improve and reinforce the structure.

In today's 10th flight, SpaceX chose to reduce the re - entry angle of attack of the first stage and mainly tested the two - engine landing, achieving a complete success.

SpaceX redesigned the tunnel pipe of the next Super Heavy Booster (B18) | Labpadre Space

As for the Starship spacecraft numbered S35, the investigation report shows that a small part in the top of the spacecraft's fuel tank, a "diffuser" responsible for evenly transporting pressurized gas, suffered structural damage. This caused the high - pressure gas to leak into the spacecraft's nose cone. From the live - broadcast footage at that time, it could be seen that there were obvious "debris" floating in the cabin, and finally the spacecraft lost control of its attitude and spun and disintegrated.

SpaceX said that this failure had not occurred before and was not predicted, but the engineers reproduced the failure based on the flight conditions as evidence for zeroing.

In the live - broadcast footage of the 9th flight, a large number of floating objects appeared in the nose cone cabin. The report proves that this was caused by the leaked propellant | SpaceX

In today's 10th test flight, the diffuser of the second stage of the Starship was redesigned to more efficiently transport pressurized gas to the storage tank and significantly reduce the structural stress of the diffuser. The newly designed diffuser is said to have undergone more rigorous tests and has worked without damage for more than 10 times its expected service life under the operating conditions at launch.

The previously photographed diffuser structure. According to the investigation report, a leak occurred here and the gas leaked into the nose cone part | Kevin Randolph

Going further back to the 7th and 8th flights, although the first - stage boosters had no problems, the failure reasons of the second - generation Starship were different.

The most likely root cause of the 8th flight failure was determined to be: One of the three Raptor engines in the center of the second - stage spacecraft suffered a hardware failure, causing the propellants to mix and ignite unexpectedly.

The culprit of the 7th flight failure was a physical phenomenon called "resonance". The propulsion system at the tail of the spacecraft encountered abnormally strong resonance, and its intensity far exceeded the simulated data during ground tests. This resonance caused the propellant pipelines and connection parts to bear