Elon Musk is once again celebrating a milestone that sounds almost unreal. After Starship’s Flight 10, he revealed that the spacecraft’s upper stage splashed down just three meters from its intended ocean target. Considering Starship is the largest rocket ever built, that kind of precision feels almost science fiction. The details came out through Teslarati, which highlighted how close the landing was to perfect.
This flight was different from earlier ones that ended in fiery crashes. Both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage made it back to Earth, completing every planned milestone. Starship not only reached space but also carried simulator payloads for Starlink satellites. Even after losing some heat shield tiles and taking damage to its flaps and skirt during reentry, it still managed a stable flip maneuver before splashing down almost exactly where engineers wanted it.
For Musk and SpaceX, that precision matters because the long-term plan is to land these rockets repeatedly, cutting launch costs and making interplanetary travel feasible. Outlets like the Washington Post pointed out that this mission was designed as a stress test, with the rocket flying through extreme reentry conditions to prove it could survive real-world missions.
There’s also the bigger picture. NASA is counting on Starship for its Artemis program, aiming to land astronauts on the Moon later this decade. Reports from New Atlas noted that Flight 10 helps build confidence that the rocket can handle ambitious missions like lunar cargo deliveries and even a crewed Mars attempt. Musk has hinted at pushing toward an uncrewed Mars flight as early as 2026, and successes like this give those bold timelines more weight.
The difference between Flight 10 and earlier attempts is night and day. Where once the conversation was about explosions, now it’s about pinpoint landings in the ocean. The fact that the world’s most powerful rocket came back battered but still precisely on target is the kind of progress Musk thrives on. And if this keeps up, it’s not hard to imagine that one day soon, landings this accurate will feel routine instead of unbelievable.