Photos: Delta 4 rocket fires off the pad before sunset

The latest prototype of SpaceX’s  Starship launch vehicle — Starship SN10 — took off from the company’s South Texas test site and flew to an altitude of more than 30,000 feet Wednesday, then descended to a controlled vertical landing after two previous test vehicles crashed at touchdown. Minutes later, the 16-story test rocket exploded in a fireball, but the test flight appeared to be a major step forward in the early stages of the Starship program.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches from Cape Canaveral with the Deep Space Climate Observatory, beginning a new day in space weather forecasting. Liftoff occurred at 6:03:32 p.m. EST on Feb. 11.

Spaceflight Now Members can watch a time-lapse replay of the Atlas 5 rocket’s rollout to pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station before the launch of the U.S. Air Force’s AEHF 5 communications satellite.