LOS ANGELES, May 22 (Xinhua) -- SpaceX launched the 12th flight test of its giant Starship rocket on Friday.
Starship lifted off from the company's Starbase facility in the U.S. state of Texas at 5:30 p.m. Central Time. Shortly after launch, SpaceX confirmed stage separation. The booster is scheduled to make a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
The mission marks the debut flight of the next-generation Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy booster, powered by an upgraded version of the Raptor engine and launched from a newly designed pad at Starbase.
According to SpaceX, the primary objective of the flight test is to evaluate the performance of these upgraded systems in a real flight environment for the first time.
