New Delhi, July 25 -- BOCA CHICA, Texas - Three weeks and one failed ignition sequence after SpaceX's second attempt to fly Starship ended before it began, the rocket that its builder has called the most complex vehicle ever built lifted off Pad 2 at Starbase on Thursday afternoon with twenty satellites and an overdue success story aboard.

45 p.m. Central time on July 24, clearing the two-day weather delay forced by Tropical Storm Bertha and the engine abort that had preceded it on July 16. That July 16 attempt ended in the ignition sequence when four Raptor engines on Booster 20 failed to fire, triggering an automatic abort and sending SpaceX back into the maintenance bay to pull and replace multiple engines. The company also pushed thr...