SpaceX prepares for the next Starship test flight

WASHINGTON — SpaceX is preparing to conduct its next Starship test flight as the company continues to test the launch vehicle and play well with others in the airspace.

Starship’s Flight 11 mission is scheduled to launch from the company’s Starbase test site in South Texas at 7:15 p.m. Eastern Time on October 13. SpaceX said in a social media post on October 12 that there was an 80% chance that weather conditions would be favorable for the launch.

The mission will be another suborbital flight similar to the Flight 10 mission in August. This will include deploying next-generation Starlink satellite mass simulators and restarting a single Raptor engine while Starship is in space. SpaceX also plans to test the vehicle’s thermal protection system and perform a “dynamic tilt maneuver” before splashdown in the Indian Ocean, analogous to the maneuver the vehicle will perform on subsequent flights when returning to Starbase.

The Super Heavy booster used for Flight 11 was first launched on Flight 8 in March and includes 24 previously used Raptor engines. SpaceX said it will use the booster to test different engine configurations for its return to Starbase, although the stage will intentionally crash offshore during that flight.

This will be the final flight of Starship Version 2, which suffered end-of-mission malfunctions during its first three launches in January, March and May before completing its planned mission during the August flight. The more powerful version 3 of the vehicle is expected to debut at the end of this year.

On its web page describing the upcoming flight, SpaceX emphasized the limited impact the launch will have on air traffic, citing the experience of Flight 10 in August.

“SpaceX works closely with the FAA and international air traffic organizations to efficiently and safely integrate all launch and airspace re-entry operations,” the company said. “During Starship Flight 10, the FAA reopened all affected airspace within nine minutes, with some portions reopening within seven minutes, and there were no significant disruptions to air traffic.”

The guidance comes as the company faces opposition to plans to launch Starship from Florida. Separate environmental reviews are underway for Starship operations from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center and Space Launch Complex 37 at the Cape Canaveral Space Station, formerly used by the Delta 4.

A draft environmental impact statement for KSC’s Starship launches, which examines the effects of 44 launches and 88 landings per year, cited the potential for flight delays at several major Florida airports, ranging from 40 to 120 minutes for launches and 40 to 60 minutes for landings.

“It is possible that there will be a significant impact on commercial aviation,” John Tiliacos, chief operating officer of Tampa International Airport, said during a virtual public hearing Sept. 3 about the draft environmental report. “That’s something the FAA needs to take into consideration and, frankly, come up with a plan to mitigate that.”

SpaceX, in a statement posted on its website last month, highlighted its efforts to minimize the impact of launches on airspace and other users. “SpaceX is continually working with the FAA to understand the best approaches to effectively integrate launch and reentry operations into the National Airspace System,” the company said, noting that for Falcon launches from Florida, “many critical air routes around the Space Coast remain open during SpaceX rocket launches, and any localized airspace closures are lifted as soon as three minutes after the take-off”.

The company added that the large aircraft danger zones, or AHAs, included in the environmental assessment, which cause potential delays at Florida airports for Starship launches, can be reduced over time.

“The AHAs and accompanying descriptions published in the recent Launch Complex 39A draft environmental impact statement are extremely conservative in nature and are intended to capture a composite of the entire worst-case outcomes, but not of a single real-world operation,” the company said.

“SpaceX fully anticipates that the actual AHAs implemented will have both a much smaller geographic scope and a much shorter duration, validated by the robust flight data and legacy we are building from Starbase,” he added.

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