1 of 7 | The SpaceX Super Heavy Booster launches Starship on its 11th test flight from Launch Complex 1 at Starbase, Texas, on Monday. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo
SpaceX on Monday successfully tested the 11th flight test of its Starship, the two-stage, heavy-lift launch vehicle designed to take humans back to the moon and eventually to Mars.
Liftoff was at 6:23 p.m. CDT at the company’s Starbase compound in Texas near the Gulf of Mexico and about 20 miles from Brownsville.
The Super Heavy upper booster first splashed down in the Gulf about eight minutes after liftoff. Then, for only the second time, the Starship spacecraft successfully went down in the Indian Ocean about one hour later.
Neither rocket was going to be recovered, though the company wants in later flights to reuse the Super Heavy and Starship spacecraft, which will ultimately include the crew cabin.
Liftoff of Starship! pic.twitter.com/sbfmGAEPa6— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 13, 2025
One hour and 15 minutes before launch, SpaceX conducted a “go/no-go” query and moved forward.
About one hour before scheduled liftoff, SpaceX began loading the 400-foot-tall Starship with 11 million pounds of propellants that included methane and oxygen.
A live-streamed broadcast of the test flight began about 30 minutes before liftoff. There were more than 1 million viewers.
The final clearance was 30 seconds left on the clock.
A few minutes after liftoff, the Super Heavy booster disengaged from the Starship after 33 engines were shut down. The Starship spacecraft then ignited its own six engines, and later relit one.
Super Heavy conducted some experimental maneuvers and had a successful landing burn off Texas’ coast about 8 1/2 minutes after launch.
During the splashdown, cheers were heard during SpaceX’s live coverage.
Super Heavy has splashed down in the Gulf of America, gathering data for the next generation booster pic.twitter.com/o72ciKBZYm— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 13, 2025
For re-entry, tiles were removed to intentionally stress-test vulnerable areas across the vehicle.
The spacecraft, going more than 16,000 mph and about 120 miles from Earth, fired its six engines for six minutes, and deployed eight satellite “simulators” like in August. It took about one minute for each one to be sent from a “payload,” ending 25 minutes after liftoff.
Starship has successfully deployed our @Starlink simulators pic.twitter.com/muNMalZkbT— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 13, 2025
SpaceX has designed them to simulate its Starlink satellites for Internet service.
Ultimately, about one hour after liftoff, the Starship vehicle splashed down in the Indian Ocean thousands of miles from Texas. Again, there were crews from SpaceX workers.
Splashdown confirmed! Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting eleventh flight test of Starship! pic.twitter.com/llcIvNZFfg— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 14, 2025
In the August test, SpaceX succeeded in its third attempt to launch the 10th Starship test mission after SpaceX officials scrubbed two prior launches.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk watched the launch from outside rather than from mission control.
SpaceX will next launch Starship from another site in Texas with flights in Florida planned.
SpaceX hopes for a crewed landing on the moon for NASA in 2027. Twelve men have walked on the moon with the last one in 1972.
SpaceX’s main business is launching nearly 8,600 Starlink satellites into orbit, according to data aggregated by Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist with the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
The private company plans to use the Starship to launch the satellites instead of the smaller Falcon 9.
