Khaberni - SpaceX, owned by American billionaire Elon Musk, launched the eleventh flight of the Starship from the Starbase facility in Texas on Monday and landed it in the Indian Ocean, in the last flight before the company begins testing a new version of the giant rocket equipped with additional features for moon and Mars missions.
The spacecraft consists of the upper stage Starship mounted on top of the Super Heavy booster rocket, and it launched at about 23:20 GMT from SpaceX facilities at Starbase.
After sending the upper stage Starship to space, the Super Heavy booster made a smooth landing in the Gulf of Mexico about 10 minutes after takeoff.
The previous rocket trial in August ended a series of test flights that were not successful over the year.
Sean Daffy, acting director of the American Aviation and Space Administration (NASA), said on the X platform that the mission represents "another significant step towards landing Americans on the South Pole of the moon".
SpaceX explained that future tests are expected to include launching a more advanced version of Starship equipped with essential features for long-duration space missions.
Gwynne Shotwell, President of SpaceX, said during a conference in Paris last month, "We have done everything we can think of to make the eleventh test flight successful... but, as you know, no one knows what might happen, so we'll see."
Refueling is one of the remaining performance tests that must be completed before the rocket starts transporting humans to the moon's surface starting in 2027.
