SpaceX closed out a dramatic chapter in the development of its super-heavy-lift Starship launch system today with a successful flight test that mostly followed the script for the previous flight test.
The 11th test flight began with the ascent of Starship’s Super Heavy booster from SpaceX’s Starbase launch pad in South Texas at 6:23 p.m. CT (4:23 p.m. PT). It was that particular pad’s last liftoff. An upgraded Pad 2 is being prepared to accommodate a more powerful Starship Version 3, with the first launch expected next year.
Starship V3 will feature an upgraded version of SpaceX’s methane-fueled Raptor engines and larger propellant tanks that are capable of in-orbit refueling.
The Super Heavy booster and its second stage, known as Ship, are being designed for missions in Earth orbit and beyond — and V3 is the version that’s meant to get SpaceX to that level.
NASA is counting on SpaceX to provide a modified version of Starship for landing astronauts on the moon by as early as 2027. SpaceX founder Elon Musk is counting on Starship to carry robots and humans to the moon and Mars, in accordance with his vision of making humanity a multiplanet species.
Standing a little more than 400 feet tall, Starship is considered the world’s most powerful rocket, with liftoff thrust of 16.7 million pounds. That’s more than twice the oomph achieved by the Saturn V rocket during the Apollo era’s heyday.
The flight plan for Starship’s 11th not-quite-orbital flight test was designed to check on some of the performance issues that will be important for V3 — and repeat some of the procedures that were executed during the 10th flight test.
SpaceX reused the same Super Heavy booster that blasted off for the eighth flight test in March. All 33 Raptor engines fired up for the ascent, and after stage separation, the booster flew itself back down to a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
This time around, SpaceX tested a landing burn procedure that called for relighting 13 engines, powering down to five engines, and then to three. (The booster ended up going 12 for 13.) At the end of the descent, Super Heavy hovered over the water for a few seconds, then dropped into the gulf. “That was absolutely awesome,” said SpaceX launch commentator Jake Berkowitz.
Then the focus turned to Ship: In a replay of Flight 10’s in-space test, the upper stage automatically deployed eight flat spacecraft that served as stand-ins for SpaceX’s Starlink broadband satellites. Ship also performed a midflight relight of one of its six Raptor engines.
This time around, some of Ship’s heat-shield tiles were removed to see how well the hull and the flaps could hold up under stress. During atmospheric re-entry, cameras showed an orange glow of plasma surrounding the upper stage. But Ship weathered the inferno, went through a dynamic banking maneuver and an in-flight bellyflop, and then executed its landing burn with three Raptor engines.
In the end, Ship sank into the Indian Ocean and burst into flames, as planned. Splashdown came 66 minutes after launch. SpaceX said all of the flight test’s objectives were met.
“We promised maximum excitement, and Starship delivered,” Berkowitz said.
During the test program’s next chapter, SpaceX plans to demonstrate full and rapid reusability of both Super Heavy and Ship, with separate returns to the launch site. Another high-priority agenda item is in-space refueling, which will be needed for trips to the moon and Mars.
This report was published on Universe Today with the headline “SpaceX Successfully Puts Starship Through 11th Flight Test to Get Ready for the Next Generation.” Licensed for republication under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
