[UPDATE: The Starship’s 11th flight has now finished. Watch the highlights.]
SpaceX has announced that it’s targeting Monday, October 13, for the 11th flight test of its massive Starship rocket. Read on for detailed information on how to watch a livestream of the event.
The 11th flight of the most powerful rocket ever built will stress-test the heat shield of the upper-stage Ship spacecraft, demonstrate maneuvers that will mimic the upper stage’s final approach for a future return to the launch site, and gather data for the improvement of the rocket’s design and performance.
The Ship will also aim to deploy eight Starlink simulators that will break up on reentry to Earth’s atmosphere. The deployment is in preparation for future operational launches when the Ship will be used to deploy Starlink internet satellites much in the same way that SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket is used today.
The first-stage Super Heavy booster previously flew on the eighth flight and will launch with 24 flight-proven Raptor engines.
SpaceX said that in the 11th flight, the primary test objective for the Super Heavy will be to demonstrate a unique landing burn engine configuration that it wants to use on the next-generation Super Heavy. “It will attempt this while on a trajectory to an offshore landing point in the Gulf of America and will not return to the launch site for catch,” SpaceX said in a post on its website on Monday.
Since the first Starship flight test in 2023, SpaceX has had mixed results with the reusable 123-meter-tall rocket. However, the most recent test, which took place in August, was deemed a success, with both the Super Heavy and Ship making soft, controlled landings in water.
When fully tested and certified, NASA and SpaceX plan to use the rocket for crew and cargo missions to the moon, and possibly for the first human mission to Mars, too.
SpaceX is aiming to launch the Starship rocket at 6:15 pm CT (7:15 p.m. ET) on Monday, October 13, from its Starbase site near Boca Chica in southern Texas.
A livestream of the event will begin about 30 minutes before launch on SpaceX’s X account. You can also watch the livestream on the X TV app.
SpaceX notes that as with with all of its test missions, the schedule is dynamic and therefore could change, so be sure to check back here or SpaceX’s X account for the latest information.
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.