SpaceX launches 11th test flight of Starship mega-rocket

SpaceX launched another of its gigantic Starship rockets on a test flight Monday, managing to fly halfway around the world while launching simulated satellites like last time.

Starship – the largest and most powerful rocket ever built – thundered into the evening sky from the southern tip of Texas. The booster lifted off and made a controlled entry into the Gulf of Mexico as planned, with the spacecraft skimming through space before descending into the Indian Ocean. Nothing was recovered.

“Hey, welcome to Earth, Starship,” SpaceX’s Dan Huot announced to applause from employees. “What a day.”

It was the 11th test flight of a large-scale spacecraft, which SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk intends to use to send people to Mars. NASA’s need is more immediate. The space agency can’t land astronauts on the Moon by the end of the decade without the 403-foot (123-meter) Starship, the reusable vehicle intended to take them from lunar orbit to the surface and back again.

Instead of staying inside Launch Control as usual, Musk said that for the first time, he was going out to watch – “much more visceral.”

The previous test flight in August – a success after a series of explosive failures – followed a similar path with similar objectives. More maneuvers were built at this time, especially for the spacecraft. SpaceX conducted a series of tests during the spacecraft’s entry over the Indian Ocean, as training for future landings at the launch site.

As before, Starship carried eight fake satellites mimicking SpaceX’s Starlinks. The flight took just over an hour, departing from Starbase, near the Mexican border.

Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy praised Starship’s progress. “Another major step towards landing the Americans on the South Pole of the Moon,” he said via X.

SpaceX is modifying its Cape Canaveral launch sites to accommodate spacecraft, in addition to the much smaller Falcon rockets used to transport astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station for NASA.

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