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.