SpaceX's Starship Flight 11 set for October 13
What's the story
SpaceX has announced the date for its next Starship mission, Flight 11. The launch is scheduled for October 13 from SpaceX's Starbase in South Texas. The launch window will open at 7:15pm EDT and SpaceX plans to livestream the event starting half an hour before liftoff. This will be the final flight of the current "Version 2" of the Starship vehicle.
Rocket design
What is the Starship vehicle?
The Starship is a two-stage rocket, with both stages made of stainless steel and designed to be fully reusable. The Super Heavy booster (first stage) carries Starship (second stage) through the lower atmosphere. Once the desired trajectory is reached, the two stages separate as designed. The upper stage continues toward suborbital space for experiments, while the booster begins its controlled descent.
Rocket evolution
Version 2 is the tallest rocket ever built
Starship Version 2 is the tallest and most powerful rocket ever built, standing nearly 400 feet tall when stacked. The next version, Version 3, will be even bigger at a height of 408 feet. SpaceX plans to make the rocket larger over time with a fourth iteration expected to debut in 2027 at around 466 feet tall.
Mission details
Flight 11 will be similar to Flight 10
Flight 11 will be similar to the previous successful mission, Flight 10, which launched on August 26. On that flight, Super Heavy successfully splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico while Starship (also called Ship) did the same in the Indian Ocean after deploying eight dummy versions of SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites. For Flight 11, SpaceX plans to target the same two splashdown zones and deploy another eight mock Starlink satellites.
Booster test
SpaceX will also test a new landing burn engine configuration
For Flight 11, SpaceX will also test a new landing burn engine configuration for the Super Heavy booster. The plan is to use five of its 33 Raptor engines for descent fine-tuning instead of the usual three. This is intended to add extra redundancy in case of spontaneous engine shutdowns and will be the standard for Version 3 of Super Heavy.