Starship completes 2nd profitable take a look at flight. Here’s a recap

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Here’s every thing to find out about SpaceX’s newest take a look at of its Starship megarocket, a mission generally known as flight 11.

In a 12 months marked early on by a string of explosive failures, SpaceX’s Starship is on observe to finish 2025 on a excessive notice.

The industrial spaceflight firm, based in 2002 by billionaire Elon Musk, launched the gargantuan rocket on a second profitable uncrewed take a look at flight in a row from its Starbase amenities in Texas. The mission, coming rather less than two months because the earlier Starship demonstration in August, helped to additional snap a run of three exams early in 2025 through which the car met a untimely fiery demise earlier than finishing many key aims.

The newest take a look at on Monday, Oct. 13 – which Musk praised on his social media web site X – was additionally the ultimate flight for SpaceX’s present iteration of the spacecraft, generally known as Version 2.

As SpaceX prepares to roll out a much bigger, extra superior prototype of Starship, the stress will proceed to be on for a car chosen to assist NASA astronauts land on the moon. Musk additionally has huge desires for Starship, famous because the world’s largest rocket, to move the primary people to Mars within the years forward.

NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy hailed the flight in a post on X as “another major step toward landing Americans on the Moon’s south pole” amid the U.S.’ house race to the lunar floor with rivals akin to China.

Here’s every thing to find out about SpaceX’s newest take a look at of its Starship megarocket, a mission generally known as flight 11.

Was the Starship launch profitable? What occurred with higher stage

Starship got off the ground at 7:23 p.m. ET Monday, Oct. 13, from SpaceX’s Starbase headquarters in South Texas, positioned about 23 miles from Brownsville close to the U.S.-Mexico border. The mission marked Starship’s fifth take a look at of 2025 and eleventh since exams started in April 2023.

The launch system car’s decrease stage, generally known as Super Heavy, ignited all of its 33 engines – a part of SpaceX’s Raptor household of engines – because it propelled the higher stage excessive above the Texas coast. Starship’s higher stage, the car the place crew and cargo would someday journey, separated inside a couple of minutes of liftoff to fireplace its personal six Raptor engines and proceed by itself flight on a decrease suborbital trajectory, in line with SpaceX.

As it flew midway world wide, the car – seen at one level in Florida – deployed mock Starlink internet satellites for the second time in a row and relighted a Raptor engine in house for the third time ever in a obligatory maneuver to someday carry a car again to the bottom.

SpaceX additionally carried out mid-flight maneuvers that will probably be obligatory for the Starship higher stage to someday be able to returning and touchdown again on the launch web site.

The car ultimately succeeded in making a planned splashdown about an hour after liftoff within the Indian Ocean west of Australia.

Starship flight 11 touchdown: Super Heavy booster makes splashdown

The rocket booster, generally known as Super Heavy, had a a lot shorter flight.

After stage separation, Super Heavy returned to make a water landing about seven minutes after launch within the Gulf of Mexico, renamed by the U.S. authorities because the Gulf of America.

During three separate Starship launches since October, SpaceX returned the large spacecraft’s rocket booster at its South Texas launch web site to be caught by its large tower with steel arms. But for the third time in a row, SpaceX had no plans to recuperate the booster because it as a substitute sought to as soon as once more push its efficiency past what has to date been tried.

During its time within the air, Super Heavy examined a touchdown configuration earlier than it deliberately self-destructed upon touchdown.

When is the subsequent Starship launch date? SpaceX engaged on Version 3 that might attain orbit

The take a look at flight was the final for SpaceX’s present iteration of Starship, generally known as Version 2.

Up subsequent, the corporate plans to start testing a brand new Starship rocket, Version 3 – or V3. The extra superior Starship prototype will probably be outfitted with upgrades important for long-duration missions deep into house, according to SpaceX.

SpaceX stated on its web site that the subsequent technology Starship could possibly be the primary to achieve orbit.

Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX president and COO, stated at a convention in Paris final month that she anticipated that iteration of Starship to fly by 12 months’s finish or early subsequent 12 months, Reuters reported.

SpaceX has additionally indicated its need to launch Starship from Florida probably earlier than the tip of 2025, however has not offered an replace on that plan since March.

While no official goal launch date has been set for the Sunshine State, plans to expand Starship operations to Florida have continued. SpaceX is within the means of getting approval for Starship launches from each the Kennedy Space Center, the place it’s growing extra infrastructure, in addition to the Cape Canaveral Space Force Base.

Future iterations of Starship might want to show the flexibility for the higher stage to return to the launch web site and in addition refuel in orbit, which is critical for it to achieve distant locations.

What is Starship? How huge is Mars-bound rocket?

The Starship, standing 403 feet tall when fully stacked, is thought to be the world’s largest and strongest launch car ever developed. When totally built-in, the launch system is composed of each a 232-foot Super Heavy rocket and the 171-foot higher stage Starship, the spacecraft the place crew and cargo would journey.

SpaceX is growing Starship to be a totally reusable transportation system, which means the rocket and car can return to the bottom for extra missions.

In the years forward, Starship is set to serve a pivotal function in future U.S. spaceflight.

Starship is the centerpiece of Musk’s imaginative and prescient of sending the primary people to Mars, with plans for the primary uncrewed Starship to move to the Red Planet as early as 2026.

A configuration of the car can be important in NASA’s plans to return astronauts to the moon’s floor. The U.S. house company has designs on utilizing Starship to ferry Artemis III astronauts from an Orion capsule in orbit to the lunar floor as early as 2027.

Contributing: Reuters

Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com