WATCH REPLAY: SpaceX Starship Flight Test 11 Successfully Launches from Boca Chica, Texas

SpaceX’s Starship Soars on Final Test Flight of Current Model, Paving Way for Larger Successor

Liftoff of Starship! pic.twitter.com/sbfmGAEPa6

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SpaceX successfully launched its Starship rocket on Monday evening from Starbase in South Texas, marking the 11th and final test flight of the current version of the world’s largest and most powerful rocket.

The 403-foot-tall Starship lifted off at 7:23 p.m. EDT (6:23 p.m. local time), completing a series of key objectives before both stages splashed down safely — the Super Heavy booster in the Gulf of Mexico and the Starship upper stage in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Western Australia.

The test validated several upgrades and maneuvers, including a new landing-burn engine configuration and the deployment of eight simulated Starlink satellites. SpaceX also tested the rocket’s heat shielding and banking control during reentry, data that will feed into the next-generation design.

“This was the final launch of Starship Version 2, and it delivered,” said SpaceX propulsion engineer Jake Berkowitz during the company’s live webcast. “Next up, we’re preparing the pad for Version 3 — even larger and more capable.”

Elon Musk, who watched from outside launch control for the first time, called the moment “visceral,” noting it brings SpaceX one step closer to its long-term goals of building a lunar lander for NASA’s Artemis missions and eventually sending humans to Mars.

Future Starship variants are expected to reach up to 466 feet in height and feature 42 Raptor engines. The next version, V3, is set to debut after Starbase completes upgrades to its launch infrastructure.

With Monday’s success, SpaceX has now achieved two consecutive flawless test flights, reinforcing its progress toward fully reusable, heavy-lift rockets designed to make space travel more frequent and affordable.

“Maximum excitement promised — and Starship delivered,” Berkowitz said.

The eleventh flight test aims to build on the successful demonstrations from Starship’s previous flight, gathering data for the next-generation Super Heavy booster, stress-testing Starship’s heat shield, and refining upper-stage reentry maneuvers to simulate a future return-to-launch-site approach.

The Super Heavy booster assigned to this test previously flew on Flight 8 and will lift off with 24 flight-proven Raptor engines. Engineers will focus on testing a new landing burn configuration designed for the upcoming Super Heavy V3 model.

Testing a New Engine Configuration

During the landing phase, Super Heavy will ignite 13 engines at the start of its descent burn, then transition to a five-engine configuration for the divert phase—an upgrade from the three-engine approach used in previous missions.

This adjustment adds redundancy, enabling automatic compensation in the event of spontaneous engine shutdowns.

The booster will conclude the sequence using its three central engines to achieve a full hover above the Gulf of Mexico before shutdown and splashdown. This test will provide engineers with valuable data on the rocket’s dynamic behavior during multi-phase engine transitions.

Meanwhile, Starship’s upper stage will pursue several experimental objectives in space, including deploying eight Starlink simulators. These simulators, modeled after next-generation Starlink satellites, will follow a suborbital trajectory and are expected to burn up upon reentry.

The mission also includes a planned relight of a single Raptor engine in space, a key milestone for future long-duration missions and orbital operations.

To prepare for future return-to-launch-site capabilities, SpaceX engineers have intentionally removed select heat shield tiles to stress-test vulnerable sections of Starship’s thermal protection system. Some of the removed tiles expose areas without ablative backup protection, allowing real-world measurement of reentry stress.

Starship will also execute a dynamic banking maneuver during descent—simulating the flight path of future missions returning to Starbase—and test subsonic guidance algorithms before performing a controlled landing burn and splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

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