SpaceX launched its eleventh flight test of Starship on Monday evening.
Starship will blasted off from Starbase, SpaceX’s launch site in south Texas at 7:15 p.m.
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SpaceX said this flight will build on the successful demonstrations from Starship’s tenth flight tes twith flight experiments gathering data for the next generation Super Heavy booster, stress-testing Starship’s heatshield, and demonstrating maneuvers that will mimic the upper stage’s final approach for a future return to launch site.
For this launch, SpaceX said the Starship upper stage will target multiple in-space objectives, including the deployment of eight Starlink simulators, similar in size to next-generation Starlink satellites. The Starlink simulators will be on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship and are expected to demise upon entry. A relight of a single Raptor engine while in space is also planned.
On Aug. 26, SpaceX launched the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket for its 10th test flight.
During that flight, Starship completed the first-ever deployment of a test payload — eight dummy satellites — into space. After just over an hour coasting through space, Starship splashed down as planned in the Indian Ocean.