SpaceX’s Starship rocket and Tremendous Heavy booster elevate off on their eleventh check flight. Credit score: SpaceX
- SpaceX’s Starship Model 2 (V2) efficiently accomplished its eleventh and remaining check flight, reaching reentry and splashdown, and offering vital knowledge after a sequence of earlier developmental challenges.
- The corporate is transitioning to an upgraded Model 3 (V3) Starship in early 2026, designed with bigger propellant tanks, enhanced Raptor engines, and an elevated payload capability of as much as 150 metric tons.
- V3 Starship improvement is essential for enabling orbital missions, speedy reuse, and in-orbit propellant switch demonstrations, capabilities important for NASA’s Human Touchdown System (HLS) for lunar missions.
- SpaceX is increasing its manufacturing and launch infrastructure, together with new pads at Starbase and services at Kennedy Area Heart, to help mass manufacturing and considerably improve Starship’s launch cadence.
SpaceX’s Starship rocket efficiently accomplished its eleventh check flight on Monday, capping a tumultuous 12 months for the hulking car as the corporate seems to be to push the envelope with a extra highly effective configuration.
Monday’s check continued Starship’s return to type, marking its second consecutive reentry and splashdown following a string of in-flight and check stand mishaps. It was Starship’s remaining flight of 2025 and the swan track for the rocket’s Model 2 (V2) configuration, which SpaceX intends to switch with an upgraded Model 3 (V3) in early 2026.
According to SpaceX, Flight 11 “reached each goal, offering useful knowledge as we put together the following era of Starship” and the Tremendous Heavy booster. The V3 Starship is anticipated to open the door to orbital missions, speedy reuse, and in-orbit demonstrations of propellant switch between ships — all vital capabilities for the Starship human touchdown system (HLS) that might put NASA astronauts on the moon as quickly as mid-2027.
Jake Berkowitz, a SpaceX lead propulsion engineer, stated on the Flight 11 livestream that the corporate is assembling a number of V3 Starships and getting ready for testing. “Nearing completion,” Berkowitz stated, is a second launch pad at its Starbase facility in Texas that’s designed to accommodate the bigger, extra highly effective rocket with the addition of a flame trench.
“Each the pad and the automobiles are going to roll in actually vital modifications, constructing on the whole lot we’ve discovered from all of those flight exams to make a car that we’re trying to mass produce,” Berkowitz stated.
SpaceX will even modify the prevailing Starbase launch pad for the V3, giving it two pads that may very well be used to ramp up Starship’s launch cadence from months to weeks — and even days. A Starship HLS lunar touchdown would require a number of launches in fast succession to fill up an orbital gasoline tank. Earlier than that occurs, SpaceX might want to show the aptitude in testing.
Starship’s return to type
Although Starship has not had the 12 months that SpaceX would have hoped, the corporate seems to be studying from its failures.
The rocket started 2025 in explosive style, blowing up throughout its ascent and diverting air visitors on back-to-back flights in January and March. Flight 9 in Could marked an enchancment as Starship averted points on the best way up. Nevertheless it as soon as once more didn’t make it to reentry and splashdown — the part of the mission throughout which SpaceX hoped to collect key knowledge on the efficiency of its warmth defend. Hiccups continued into June, when the ship supposed for Flight 10 exploded on the check stand.
SpaceX dissected these anomalies and located totally different root causes for every, making a number of enhancements forward of Flight 10 in late August. They had been efficient, permitting Starship to deploy its first payload — a batch of dummy Starlink satellites—and obtain splashdown for the primary time in 2025.
Flight 11 continued that upswing. Starship and Tremendous Heavy lifted off from Starbase round 6:23 p.m. EDT on Monday. On the best way up, Starship jettisoned the booster, which accomplished a boostback burn and headed again to Earth. SpaceX has beforehand caught Tremendous Heavy again on the pad utilizing a pair of big metallic chopsticks.
However Flight 11, just like the earlier mission, examined maneuvers which are deliberate for the V3 booster. Tremendous Heavy on Monday ignited 13 of its 33 Raptor engines earlier than shifting down to 5, then three. It hovered a number of hundred toes over the ocean earlier than engine cutoff.
Starship, in the meantime, reached its suborbital trajectory, opened its payload bay, and launched one other batch of Starlink simulators. These had been meant to mimic SpaceX’s bigger, next-generation Starlink modules, which may solely launch on Starship.
The rocket additionally relit one among its six Raptor engines on orbit for the third time. Future missions would require that functionality to take care of orbital management.
Starship’s crowning achievement, although, was surviving a reentry profile supposed to push the rocket to its limits.
Because it did forward of earlier flights, SpaceX for Flight 11 eliminated a number of the warmth defend tiles defending Starship’s chrome steel physique. The concept is to “stress-test” susceptible parts of the warmth defend that have temperatures north of two,600 levels Fahrenheit whereas hurtling by the environment.
The ship made it by reentry with out vital harm seen on SpaceX’s stay feed, which ought to give the corporate useful knowledge. It additionally carried out what SpaceX described as a “dynamic banking maneuver” that mimicked the trajectory it will take main as much as a catch try at Starbase. These exams might facilitate the eventual catch and speedy reuse of Starship — a functionality SpaceX has already demonstrated with Tremendous Heavy.
Following the financial institution maneuver, Starship floated all the way down to Earth on its aspect, as if getting ready for a stomach flop. It then carried out a touchdown flip and burn, splashing down softly at a preplanned location within the Indian Ocean.
Mishaps throughout earlier check flights have positioned SpaceX in a time crunch. In response to a Authorities Accountability Workplace assessment of main NASA tasks, the area company predicts with 70 % confidence that Starship HLS shall be prepared by February 2028 — months after it’s scheduled to facilitate the Artemis III lunar touchdown.
In November, for instance, Kathy Lueders, basic supervisor of Starbase, stated the corporate hoped to catch Starship as quickly as Could. That’s unlikely to occur till SpaceX has at the least a number of V3 launches below its belt. However the extra strong rocket has the potential to unlock reusability, which SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has dubbed the “holy grail” of rocketry.
What’s new with V3?
Starship V2 debuted on Flight 7 in January, introducing new capabilities—and complexities—to the design. Now that SpaceX has had a number of months to iron out the kinks, it’s getting ready to usher in what may very well be the rocket’s operational period.
Starship V3 will introduce bigger propellant tanks, upgraded Raptor engines, and a payload fairing bigger than any in operation. It’s projected to hold as much as 150 metric tons of payload — greater than NASA’s Apollo-era Saturn V — for longer distances and a decrease value than SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9.
The corporate envisions V3 launching satellites and small telescopes to orbit. In response to its website, analysis, improvement, and exploratory flights to the moon and Mars will start in 2028 and 2030, respectively, priced at $100 million per metric ton of cargo.
One other V3 improve is the set up of docking adapters for the on-orbit switch of cryogenic propellant between ships. SpaceX hopes to exhibit that maneuver subsequent 12 months, launching two Starships weeks aside. Sooner or later, Starship tankers will restock an orbital propellant depot that shall be used to gasoline up for missions to the moon and Mars.
Past the rollout of V3, SpaceX is getting ready for Starship mass manufacturing. Improvement, manufacturing, and testing for the rocket takes place at Starbase, the place the Starfactory manufacturing hub is being developed to churn out as much as 1,000 Starships per 12 months.
On the identical time, SpaceX is constructing a pair of Starship integration buildings referred to as Gigabays—one subsequent to Starfactory, and a second at NASA’s Kennedy Area Heart (KSC) in Florida. Each are anticipated to be accomplished in 2026. These services would permit Starship to launch from Starbase in addition to Florida’s Area Coast, the place SpaceX is seeking permission to make use of KSC’s Launch Advanced 39A and Cape Canaveral Area Drive Station’s Area Launch Advanced 37.
In the end, the purpose is to launch tons of of Starships yearly from a number of pads. However first, SpaceX might want to resolve the warmth defend dilemma.
Editor’s notice: This story first appeared on FLYING.
