SpaceX’s Starship Flight 11 took another big step toward future Moon and Mars missions, completing key flight and landing tests.

Humanity is "one step closer to the Moon" thanks to a landmark SpaceX rocket launch, Nasa has said. Elon Musk's space firm launched its 11th Starship rocket from Texas on Monday, with the craft eventually coming down in the Indian Ocean just west of Australia.

This was arguably SpaceX's most successful Starship test flight to date. The only flight with a similar claim occurred one year ago Monday, when the company caught the rocket's Super Heavy booster back at the launch pad after soaring to the uppermost fringes of the atmosphere.

The Pentagon and NASA cannot be dependent on one contractor for critical operations, especially Elon Musk's SpaceX.

The space agency doesn't seem to save any money by outsourcing its missions to private companies, according to the analysis.