SpaceX is making final preparations for a significant milestone in its ambitious Starship development program. The company has announced that it aims for October 13 to launch Starship Flight 11, which will be the last flight of the current "Version 2" iteration of the colossal rocket system.
The launch, expected to ignite at 7:15 p.m. EDT (2315 GMT; 6:15 p.m. local Texas time), will originate from SpaceX's Starbase facility in South Texas. Enthusiasts worldwide can tune into SpaceX's official webcast, commencing 30 minutes prior to liftoff, to witness the event unfold.
Starship represents a cornerstone of SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk's long-term vision: enabling humanity to establish a presence on Mars. The revolutionary vehicle is composed of two primary stainless-steel components: the Super Heavy first-stage booster and the Starship upper stage (or "Ship"), both engineered for full reusability—a pioneering design for such a massive rocket.
The current Version 2 Starship stands impressively at nearly 400 feet (121 meters) when fully stacked, making it the largest and most powerful rocket ever constructed. Future iterations promise even greater scale, with Version 3, set to debut on Flight 12, reaching 408 feet (124.4 m), and the Version 4 variant, anticipated by 2027, potentially towering at 466 feet (142 m).
Flight 11 is poised to mirror the highly successful Flight 10, which launched on August 26. During that previous mission, the Super Heavy booster executed a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, while the Starship upper stage performed a similar maneuver in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Western Australia. Prior to its descent, Ship successfully deployed eight dummy Starlink internet satellites.
For Flight 11, SpaceX intends to target these identical splashdown zones, with Ship once again deploying eight mock Starlinks. In a deliberate stress test for the vehicle, some heat-shield tiles will be intentionally removed from Ship to assess vulnerable areas. Furthermore, the Super Heavy booster will demonstrate a novel landing burn engine configuration, utilizing five of its 33 Raptor engines for fine-tuning its descent, rather than the standard three. This enhanced, five-engine approach is slated to become the baseline for the next generation of Super Heavy boosters (Version 3), offering increased redundancy against potential engine shutdowns.
This upcoming mission also highlights SpaceX's commitment to reusability: the Super Heavy booster for Flight 11 is flight-proven, having successfully completed Flight 8 in March and subsequently returned to Starbase for a precise catch by the launch tower's "chopstick" arms. Twenty-four of its 33 Raptor engines have also undergone previous flight operations. This marks the second instance of a Super Heavy booster being reused, following a similar deployment on Flight 9 in May.
---
Originally published at: https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/spacex-targeting-oct-13-for-next-starship-megarocket-launch
