STARPESE, Texas, May 22 (Reuters) - SpaceX completed a largely successful test flight of its next-generation Starship rocket, launching a swarm of mock-up satellites and executing a controlled water landing in the Indian Ocean, in the first major appearance of the recently upgraded vehicle as Elon Musk's company prepares for its public offering.

The latest launch of the unmanned Starship spacecraft marked a major milestone for the vehicle after months of delays in launch testing. The spacecraft is designed to enable rapid launches of Starlink satellites and future NASA missions to the moon. This success could also boost investor confidence ahead of SpaceX's initial public offering next month, expected to be the largest in history.

SpaceX has spent more than $15 billion developing Starship to be a fully reusable spacecraft. The vehicle is crucial to Musk’s goals of reducing launch costs, expanding the Starlink business, and pursuing various ambitions ranging from exploring extremely remote areas of space to orbital data centers, all of which are taken into account in the targeted $1.75 trillion initial public offering.

Yesterday's launch was the 12th test flight of SpaceX's Starship prototype since 2023 and the first of the V3 version, a major upgrade to both the spacecraft and its Super Heavy launch booster. It was also the first launch from a platform specially designed for the new rocket.