SpaceX is moving difficult to get its gargantuan Starship rocket fresh for unit and cargo flights to nan satellite and perchance moreover Mars, and slow but surely nan squad is making progress.
Since the very first formation successful April 2023 location person been melodramatic midair explosions, conveyance breakups, and an explosive mishap connected nan ground involving nan upper-stage Ship spacecraft.
The astir caller flight, however, went beautiful overmuch according to plan, giving nan SpaceX squad a existent boost arsenic it group astir preparing for nan 11th flight, which is presently scheduled for Monday, October 13.
So, what do we cognize astir nan upcoming formation test?
Super Heavy h2o landing
While SpaceX has already proved that it tin onshore nan first-stage Super Heavy booster backmost astatine its Starbase tract successful confederate Texas, nan 11th formation will spot it effort a soft, controlled landing connected h2o again, a feat that it achieved disconnected nan Texas seashore successful nan 10th flight, among others.
The landing pain will usage 13 of nan booster’s 33 Raptor engines earlier transitioning to 5 engines successful a divert phase, and yet 3 cardinal engines. At this point, nan booster will concisely hover conscionable supra nan water earlier nan engines unopen down, sending it into nan water. The maneuver will trial a caller landing pain motor configuration for nan booster that’s presently considered excessively risky for a Starbase landing wherever captious systems could beryllium damaged it if it went wrong. “The superior extremity connected nan formation trial is to measurement nan real-world conveyance dynamics arsenic engines unopen down while transitioning betwixt nan different phases,” SpaceX said.
Reuse of Super Heavy booster
The Super Heavy booster launching successful nan 11th trial will beryllium connected its 2nd formation aft having flown successful the eighth trial successful March 2025. However, it won’t beryllium nan first clip that a Super Heavy has flown much than once, arsenic nan ninth trial successful May 2025 reused a booster that first flew successful nan seventh trial astatine nan commencement of this year. Reuse of nan booster is cardinal to nan Starship’s occurrence arsenic it allows SpaceX to massively trim costs and summation nan wave of flights.
Reuse of Raptor engines
It’s not only nan conveyance that’s being reused arsenic 24 of nan Super Heavy’s Raptor engines will besides beryllium firing up again, too. Ultimately, SpaceX wants to beryllium capable to reuse each Raptor motor arsenic galore arsenic 1,000 times to drastically trim spaceflight costs.
Satellite deployment
The upper-stage Ship spacecraft successfully deployed a number of dummy Starlink satellites successful nan 10th formation test, and it will effort nan aforesaid process successful nan upcoming flight. The 8 Starlink simulators will beryllium connected nan aforesaid suborbital trajectory arsenic nan Ship and are expected to break up upon entry, SpaceX said. A relight of a azygous Raptor motor while successful abstraction is besides planned.
Ship stress-test
For nan Ship’s reentry, tiles person been removed from nan conveyance truthful that SpaceX engineers tin spot really susceptible points connected nan building execute nether aggravated power and pressure. The trial will thief SpaceX to amended understand nan Ship’s limits and really good its stainless alloy hull and metallic power shields withstand utmost reentry conditions. So yes, there’s a chance that nan Ship whitethorn not make it to nan Indian Ocean successful 1 piece.
Ship h2o landing
It stays intact, nan Ship will effort a soft, controlled landing connected h2o arsenic it has done successful different flights wherever it’s made it that far. In early flights, SpaceX wants to bring nan Ship location to nan Starbase site, landing it successful nan aforesaid measurement that it’s successfully landed nan Super Heavy, using elephantine mechanical arms attached to a gangly tower. In fact, connected nan 11th flight, SpaceX will mimic nan way that a early vessel will return connected flights backmost to Starbase, pinch nan last moments group to see a move banking maneuver and a trial of subsonic guidance algorithms.
SpaceX is expected to effort its first Starbase landing successful nan early portion of adjacent year, though nan timing will very overmuch dangle connected nan vehicle’s capacity successful nan 11th flight.
The 11th formation will beryllium livestreamed
As pinch each of SpaceX’s Starship missions, nan formation trial will beryllium livestreamed connected Monday, October 13. Digital Trends has everything you request to know.