On Monday, SpaceX launched its eleventh test flight of the massive Starship rocket, once again achieving a successful mission as the vehicle circled halfway around the globe and released mock satellites, just like in previous flights.
The Starship — the largest and most powerful rocket ever constructed — soared into the evening sky from southern Texas. The booster detached and executed a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, while the spacecraft briefly entered space before descending into the Indian Ocean. As planned, no components were retrieved.
“Hey, welcome back to Earth, Starship,” said SpaceX’s Dan Huot, as employees celebrated. “What a day.”
This flight marked the 11th full-scale launch of Starship, the reusable rocket Elon Musk hopes will eventually carry humans to Mars. For NASA, however, the timeline is more pressing: the agency needs Starship to land astronauts on the moon before the end of the decade. The 403-foot (123-meter) vehicle is key to ferrying crews between lunar orbit and the surface.
For the first time, Musk watched the launch from outside Launch Control, describing the experience as “much more visceral.”
The August test flight, considered a success after several previous failures, followed a similar trajectory. However, this latest test featured enhanced maneuvering — particularly during the spacecraft’s reentry phase. SpaceX conducted several tests over the Indian Ocean to simulate future landings back at the launch site.
As with previous tests, Starship carried eight mock satellites resembling the company’s Starlink internet satellites. The mission lasted just over an hour, launching from SpaceX’s Starbase facility near the Mexican border.
NASA’s acting administrator, Sean Duffy, praised the mission’s success on X, calling it “another major step toward landing Americans on the moon’s south pole.”
In preparation for future missions, SpaceX is upgrading its launch facilities at Cape Canaveral to handle Starship rockets, alongside the smaller Falcon vehicles currently used to send astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station.
