Elon Musk’s Starship landed in the sea, landing in the Indian Ocean even after engine failure; SpaceX and NASA celebrated

By Samira Vishwas On May 23, 2026

Lan Musk’s company SpaceX has set a new record. The company successfully tested the third version (V3) of the world’s largest rocket Starship. Seeing this, the American space agency NASA is also happy. NASA described it as ‘one step closer to the Moon, one step closer to Mars’. However, the rocket was landed in the sea where it exploded with a loud bang. After the Flight-12 test on Saturday, senior NASA officials called it a major success for space missions. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, while sharing pictures of the launch, called it a big step for America’s space mission.

Let us tell you that many launches of Starship series have been done before, but this was the first test of the third generation (V3) upgraded rocket and the 12th test of Starship. It was launched on the morning of 23 May as per Indian time. SpaceX, the company of the world’s richest businessman Elon Musk, has built this rocket. The Starship spacecraft (upper part) and the Super Heavy Booster (lower part) are collectively called ‘Starship’. The height of this vehicle is 403 feet. It is completely reusable.

Preparation to land humans on the moon

NASA plans to use Starship as a Human Landing System (HLS). That means Artemis-3 mission and after that this spacecraft will take the astronauts to the surface of the moon. NASA has been preparing to send humans to the moon again through Artemis mission for a long time. Now the successful test of Starship V3 seems to be giving new momentum to this mission.

Why did NASA say big step?

NASA says that many important targets like hot staging, booster performance and orbit operation are now being met in the testing of Starship. Although full reusability and manned flight are still to come, but with each test this system is moving towards inclusion in use. NASA says that Starship is not limited to the moon only. If this system is completely successful, then in future it can also become the backbone of the mission to send humans to Mars.

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