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After its successful Starship Flight 10 last week, SpaceX shared additional images of the test and the first from inside the ship. SpaceX is the only rocket company and launch provider in the world capable of beaming down high resolution rocket launch images courtesy of its Starlink satellite internet constellation. The latest images from SpaceX show views of Earth from the booster and the ship during the test flight which inject fresh vigor into the firm’s Starship test program.
SpaceX’s Fresh Starship Flight 10 Images Show Rocket Engulfed In Plasma As It Enters Earth’s Atmosphere
After it shared a brief update following Starship Flight 10 last week, SpaceX has yet to share additional updates about the flight test. Flight 10 marked significant progress over Flights 7, 8 and 9 as it was the first time that the upper stage Starship was able to successfully splash down in 2025. However, the ship’s descent was far from perfect as its aft (bottom) flaps were heavily damaged during the return, along with significant orange streaks on the heatshield and a high-energy event in the engine pay.
Among these anomalies, Elon Musk has only remarked on the orange coloring of the heat shield. In a post on X soon after Flight 10, Musk explained that the “red color” was due to metallic heat shield tiles, which oxidized during reentry. SpaceX had confirmed before the test that it would test new tiles on Starship and deliberately leave some spots open. The SpaceX executive added that the white streaks on the heart shield were due to these insulation areas.
SpaceX uses tens of thousands of in-house heat-shield tiles on Starship. The heat shield is an indispensable component of the rocket’s eventual rapid reusability, since SpaceX is aiming to quickly refly the ship after it lands on Earth. As a result, the heat shield tests were crucial during Flight 10, especially since all prior tests of the second-generation upper stage ship had ended before SpaceX could test the heat shield tiles.
Now, as it potentially works on a Starship update to explain the flap damage and the engine bay high-energy event, SpaceX has shared the third set of images from Starship Flight 10. The first two sets covered the Super Heavy booster at the time of liftoff and the Starship second stage as it splashed down in the Indian Ocean. The latter set of images was quite important as they helped debunk speculation of the ship losing a large number of heat shield tiles during reentry.
The latest Starship Flight 10 images from SpaceX show the Heavy booster with its grid fin visible and the upper stage Starship in its suborbital trajectory and during atmospheric reentry. The Super Heavy booster’s grid fin appeared to be another off-nominal event during Starship Flight 10, as it appeared to cause a major wobble on the booster as it headed towards its splashdown. An update from SpaceX should cover the grid fin anomaly as well.
Footage from local media shows that SpaceX has picked up Raptor engine testing in its Boca Chica facilities. Apart from Starship Flight 10, the firm had a busy last week of August as it launched eight Falcon 9 missions, half of which were for its Starlink satellite internet constellation.
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