SpaceX to launch 11th Starship flight test later today

Later this afternoon, SpaceX plans to launch its final Starship rocket of 2025; this will also be the final Block 2 Starship to fly. The launch seems overall similar to Flight 10, which took place a little over one month ago. However, a success on each flight is still important for Starship stakeholders, including NASA.

No earlier than 6:15 PM CT, SpaceX will conduct its 11th Starship test flight with Booster 15 and Ship 38 stacked and ready on Launch Mount 1 at Starbase, Texas. The launch window will last until 7:30 PM CT, at which point SpaceX will have to delay the launch to one of its two backup dates, October 14 and 15.

SpaceX states Starship Flight 11’s missions will be to continue to gather more flight data. As a rocket still in development, real world flight data is an important tool for further improvements. However, Flight 11 will have other goals to help move the rocket out of development. These include:

• First reflight of a Super Heavy Booster
• Additional redundancy testing during booster landing
• Relight of a Raptor engine during flight
• Deployment of 8 dummy Starlink satellites
• Stress testing of Ship’s head shield during reentry
• Perform test maneuvers for future Ship catch attempt

Some of those tests, like the dummy satellite deployments and Raptor engine relight, have been the story of Starship flights for all of 2025. Others, like the reflight of Booster 15, are new and should prove to give some excitement during liftoff (you know… in case it isn’t as reliable as they think it is).

Starship Flight 11 will also remain a suborbital mission, with Booster 15 coming back to splash down in the Gulf of Mexico and Ship 38 landing in the Indian Ocean. This includes the dummy Starlink satellites, which are designed to burn up during reentry.

With Flight 11’s retirement of Block 2 Starship rockets, it will be Block 3 vehicles, which are still under construction, that will be the first to fly an orbital Starship mission.