After the spectacular success of its 10th Starship test launch, SpaceX is now focusing on the 11th test launch on October 13, Elon Musk's company confirmed on Tuesday.
The next Starship and Super Heavy booster launch is to be conducted from SpaceX's Starbase site in South Texas, with the window opening at 6:15 p.m. CT (October 14, 4:45 a.m. IST).
"Starship's tenth flight test made another important step in creating the world's first fully reusable launch vehicle. Next in line: Flight 11 of Starship is set to launch as soon as Monday, October 13," SpaceX posted on social media platform X.
For this 11th launch, the booster will have 24 flight-tested Raptor engines. The primary goal of the test will be to demonstrate a new landing burn engine configuration SpaceX plans to implement on the next-generation Super Heavy.
The booster will try to do this with an offshore landing site in the Gulf of America as it is headed, instead of coming back to the launch pad for recovery, SpaceX discussed in a blog post.
The main purpose of the test is to assess the actual flight dynamics of the vehicle when shutting down engines during transitions between flight stages.
In the meantime, the upper stage of Starship will have multiple missions in space, including deploying eight simulators for Starlink, which are similar in size to the future generation Starlink satellites.
The flight will also have several experiments and operational refinements on board to allow for Starship's upper stage to return to the launch pad on future missions.
Starship's 10th test flight in August started with the Super Heavy booster taking off on all 33 Raptor engines and flying over the Gulf of America.
Directed by its four flaps, the spacecraft arrived at its splashdown point in the Indian Ocean, performed a landing flip, and ended the mission with a controlled landing burn and soft splashdown.
This triumph comes after a series of setbacks in Flights 7, 8, and 9 early this year—January, March, and May, respectively.
During Flights 7 and 8, the spaceship burst apart just less than 10 minutes from launch, while Flight 9 broke apart during its reentry into Earth's atmosphere.
Over 400 feet high when completed, Starship is the biggest and most powerful rocket constructed.
It consists of two parts, both designed to be reused swiftly and completely: the Super Heavy booster, and the upper-stage spacecraft Starship.
SpaceX is building Starship to make human missions back to the Moon and eventual Mars settlement possible.
The rocket will also transport NASA's Artemis 3 lunar lander to the Moon.
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