SpaceX concluded a dramatic chapter in the development of its Starship super-heavy-lift launch system with a successful flight test that largely followed the script of the previous flight test.
The 11th test flight began at 6:23 p.m. CT (11:23 p.m. UTC) on October 13 with the ascent of Starship’s Super Heavy booster from SpaceX’s Starbase launch pad in South Texas. It was the last launch of this particular pad. An improved Pad 2 is being prepared to accommodate a more powerful Starship version 3. The first launch is expected next year.
Starship V3 will feature an upgraded version of SpaceX’s methane-fueled Raptor engines and larger fuel tanks that can be refueled in orbit.
The Super Heavy booster and its second stage, known as Ship, are designed for missions in Earth orbit and beyond – and V3 is the version designed to take SpaceX to that level.
NASA is betting that SpaceX will provide a modified version of Starship for landing astronauts on the moon as early as 2027. SpaceX founder Elon Musk is betting that Starship will carry robots and humans to the Moon and Mars, in line with his vision of making humanity a multiplanetary species.
At just over 400 feet tall, Starship is considered the world’s most powerful rocket with a launch thrust of 16.7 million pounds. That’s more than double the power achieved by the Saturn V rocket during the heyday of the Apollo era.
The flight plan for Starship’s 11th sub-orbital flight test was designed to review some of the performance issues that will be important to V3 – and to repeat some of the procedures performed during the 10th flight test.
SpaceX reused the same Super Heavy booster that launched for the eighth flight test in March. All 33 Raptor engines were ignited for the climb, and after stage separation, the booster flew back independently for a controlled dive into the Gulf of Mexico.
This time, SpaceX tested a landing burn procedure that required re-igniting 13 engines, shutting down to five engines, then three. (The booster ended up getting 12 to 13.) At the end of the descent, Super Heavy hovered over the water for a few seconds and then fell into the gulf. “That was absolutely amazing,” said SpaceX launch commentator Jake Berkowitz.
Then the focus turned to the ship: In a repeat of Flight 10’s space test, the upper stage automatically deployed eight low-profile spacecraft to replace SpaceX’s Starlink broadband satellites. The ship also performed an in-flight re-ignition of one of its six Raptor engines.
This time, some of the ship’s heat shield panels were removed to see how well the hull and flaps could withstand the stress. During atmospheric reentry, cameras showed an orange glow from plasma surrounding the upper stage. But Ship survived the inferno, completing a dynamic bank maneuver and mid-flight belly flutter, then made his landing attack using three Raptor engines.
In the end, as expected, the ship sank in the Indian Ocean and burst into flames. Splashdown arrived 66 minutes after launch. According to SpaceX, all objectives of the flight test were achieved.
“We promised maximum excitement and Starship delivered,” said Berkowitz.
In the next chapter of the test program, SpaceX plans to demonstrate full and rapid reusability of Super Heavy and Ship with separate returns to the launch site. Another high-priority item on the agenda is in-space refueling, needed for trips to the Moon and Mars.
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