SpaceX aims for better landings in latest starship test

SpaceX blasted off another Starship rocket, the latest test flight for a massive vehicle that is essential to plans to return U.S. astronauts to the moon, and to Elon Musk’s dream of interplanetary exploration.

The nearly 400-foot tall rocket roared off a launchpad near Brownsville, Texas, according to a SpaceX livestream. The company said before the launch that its primary goal for the mission was to demonstrate that both parts of Starship, its booster rocket and spacecraft, can make controlled returns to Earth.

Thursday’s launch was the fourth flight test of a rocket that SpaceX has called the most powerful ever built. Making the rocket work would expand the company’s capacity to carry satellites into orbit, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is counting on a version of Starship to help return astronauts to the moon.

Musk, SpaceX’s founder and chief executive, one day hopes to use Starship to send humans to Mars. First, the company needs to show Starship is ready to land NASA astronauts on the lunar surface.

Starship consists of two vehicles that work together during missions: the towering Super Heavy booster, and a spacecraft that detaches from it to fly in space. The company wants both to be reusable.

“The primary objectives will be executing a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico with the Super Heavy booster, and achieving a controlled entry of Starship,” SpaceX said before the launch.

Write to Micah Maidenberg at micah.maidenberg@wsj.com