SpaceX has successfully launched the Starship rocket for the 11th time.
The 123-meter-tall roared skyward from Starbase in southern Texas on Monday, October 13.
Liftoff of Starship! pic.twitter.com/sbfmGAEPa6
Just a couple of minutes after a flawless launch, the Raptor engines on the upper-stage Ship ignited during hot-staging separation, with the first-stage Super Heavy booster heading back to Earth.
Starship’s Raptor engines ignite during hot-staging separation. Super Heavy is boosting back towards its splashdown site and preparing for its landing burn experiment pic.twitter.com/oCy90IFitO
SpaceX then shared this phenomenal tracking shot as the 71-meter-tall Super Heavy booster made a soft, controlled landing on water.
Super Heavy has splashed down in the Gulf of America, gathering data for the next generation booster pic.twitter.com/o72ciKBZYm
Here’s the Ship coasting through space on a suborbital trajectory.
Starship’s ascent burn is complete and is now coasting through space pic.twitter.com/UrNg19ElX5
The Ship then deployed a number of dummy Starlink satellites. In future missions, the Starship will be used to perform satellite deployments not only for Starlink but also for private companies, organizations, and governments.
Starship has successfully deployed our @Starlink simulators pic.twitter.com/muNMalZkbT
Here the Ship experiences the most aerodynamic stress as it reenters Earth’s atmosphere.
Starship is executing a banking maneuver that mimics the final approach it would take while returning to Starbase for a catch on a future mission pic.twitter.com/t4Al1xg7Xe
Finally, 66 minutes after launch, the Ship spacecraft made a soft, controlled landing in the Indian Ocean, bringing the flight test to a close.
Splashdown confirmed! Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting eleventh flight test of Starship! pic.twitter.com/llcIvNZFfg
SpaceX will have considered the 11th flight test a big success, with the engineers able to analyze reams of data to help them learn more about the rocket’s performance and where improvements can be made.
This could be the final Starship launch of 2025 as the SpaceX team continues work on improving the rocket’s performance. Also, the 12th flight will mark the debut of SpaceX’s next-generation Starship, known as Starship Version 3 (V3), which is a major upgrade over previous models in terms of scale, performance, and technology.
Once fully tested and certified, the Starship rocket will be used for crew and cargo missions to the moon, and even the first human mission to Mars, though the latter is still a long way off.
NASA is planning to use a modified version of the Ship to put two astronauts on the lunar surface in the Artemis III mission, which will take place no earlier than 2027.
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.