Starship's giant first-stage booster, named Super Heavy, has performed better as of late. For example, the booster successfully returned to Starbase for a dramatic catch by the launch tower's "chopstick" arms on both Flight 7 and Flight 8.

SpaceX on Tuesday night launched the 10th test flight of its giant Super Heavy-Starship rocket, a milestone mission to demonstrate fixes and upgrades in the wake of three catastrophic failures earlier this year.

After setbacks during the last three launches of Starship, Elon Musk’s rocket company splashed down in the Indian Ocean on Tuesday night.