A detailed independent study found that SpaceX's Starship is every bit as revolutionary as expected, while revealing both its impressive capabilities and its biggest remaining hurdles. It also introduces an ambitious European rocket concept that could offer a very different route to affordable super heavy launches.

“The amount of ambition around [SpaceX’s] industrialization is unlike anything I’ve ever witnessed,” says RBC analyst Ken Herbert.

SpaceX Starship 25 and Super Heavy booster 9 launched to orbit from the Starbase facility in South Texas. See tracking cam footage of the booster engine cutoff and stage separation. Credit: SpaceX | edited by Space.

Japanese moon transport company ispace has secured 500 kilograms of payload capacity on SpaceX's Starship, launching a new lower-cost lunar cargo business.

Today, the space industry can’t wait for Starship to finally deliver. With a payload capacity of more than 100 metric tons (220,000 pounds) to low-Earth orbit, SpaceX’s new rocket is changing the thinking of just about everyone in the space industry.

SpaceX has made a deal with a Japanese startup to send half a tonne of equipment to the Moon in an attempt to supercharge the lunar economy. The $50 million (£37m) agreement with Tokyo-based ispace relies on SpaceX’s Starship megarocket,