After three failed attempts earlier this year, SpaceX finally scored a major win on Tuesday night as its Super Heavy-Starship rocket completed a dramatic test flight — proving the company is inching closer to its ambitious space goals.

The mission wasn’t flawless. The upper stage, Starship, endured intense heat during reentry, which damaged its engine skirt and even partially melted a control flap. Still, the spacecraft held steady and pulled off a powered splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

“Splashdown confirmed! Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting tenth flight test of Starship!” the company cheered on X.

The Super Heavy booster, which carried Starship through the lower atmosphere, also performed well before making a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. Engineers say this simulated what would happen if an engine failed during descent.

This test flight — lasting 1 hour and 6 minutes — is a big step forward for SpaceX as it continues refining the world’s most powerful rocket, capable of generating a staggering 16 million pounds of thrust. That’s more than twice NASA’s Space Launch System and even the historic Saturn V.

But challenges remain. For NASA’s planned 2027 Artemis moon mission, SpaceX must master in-orbit refueling, a never-before-attempted feat that would require 10–20 tanker flights to transfer propellant in space.

Skeptics warn the timeline may be too ambitious. “We’re not going to get a crewed Starship to the moon by 2030 under any circumstances,” one senior engineer told CBS News, noting the technical leap is enormous — though not impossible in the long run.

Meanwhile, China is racing ahead with its own lunar program and hopes to plant its flag on the moon before the decade ends — potentially beating both NASA and SpaceX.

For now, though, SpaceX’s latest success shows real progress: Starship is learning to survive space and fight its way back home.