Starship Flight 11 - What to expect
An astonishing 2 weeks in advance, SpaceX has announced the launch date and flight plans for Flight 11 of the Starship vehicle, which is set to lift off in an approximately 1-hour window starting at 18:15 pm CDT on October 13th! This comes just a few hours after the 1-year anniversary of the historic Flight 5 of this same vehicle, which saw the Booster getting caught for the first time, marking a significant milestone in the program.
Here, we’re going to talk about the launch preparations, vehicles involved, flight profile, and the significance of this launch, as it is like no other.
Previously: what happened on Flight 10?
If you’ve followed the Starship program this year, you should be aware of the back-to-back failures that Ships 33, 34, 35, and 36 experienced in the first 6 months of the year, 3 of which were in flight and 1 on the ground.
Ship 33 flew on Flight 7, debuting the Block 2 version, but lost its engines at about T+7m30s due to failure in the propellant feed system, caused by higher-than-expected vibrations on ascent due to the new Ship design.
Ship 34 was lost at the same time, before SECO, due to an explosion of at least 1 Raptor engine, which critically damaged all the others, making the Ship spin out of control and explode.
Ship 35 was the one, after an extensive 2.5-month test campaign, to reach SECO successfully. Unfortunately, a methane leak (first gaseous, then liquid) caused by the diffuser failure caused pressure regulation problems in the nosecone, followed by the freezing of the components, bringing the flight software to power down the vehicle. Without any control or propellant, the Ship was lost during an uncontrolled reentry, skipping all the coast phase tests.
Ship 36 blew up a few minutes before a 6-engine static fire at Massey’s due to a COPV failure in the payload bay. This explosion caused significant delays to the program, but thanks to SpaceX’s quick adaptability, they could design, develop, and execute a plan to static fire ships on the OLM in less than 1.5 months.
Starship launching on Flight 10. Credit: SpaceX
With the explosion of Ship 36, Ship 37 got assigned to Flight 10. This flight was supposed to be the final redeemer, and it certainly lived up to these expectations. Launch occurred on August 27th, 2025, at 18:30pm CDT on the dot; following liftoff (featuring also Booster 16), the full stack pitched downrange and successfully passed through Max-Q. Around 2 and a half minutes into flight there was hot staging, where Booster 16 powered down all its engines but 3, as the Ship ignited all 6 and separated from the Booster. As Ship 37 kept ascending, Booster 16 lit 12 of its engines for the boostback burn, targeting an offshore point in the Gulf of Mexico to test a higher angle of attack on descent, as well as a new engine configuration, in which it lit 12 engines (1 didn’t work, the same on boostback), then switched to 3 (including 2 of the center ones and 1 of the middle ring), then switched to just the center 2, and finally shut them down after a hover, plummeting down and exploding on impact.
This test allowed SpaceX to gather data on what could happen if a center engine fails on landing burn, confirming reliability and redundancy.
Booster 16 hovering above the ocean following shutdown. Credit: SpaceX
As for Ship 37, it kept ascending, and it successfully reached SECO, after which it began its coast phase and the related tests: first up, the deployment of 8 Starlink V3 simulators. After opening the payload bay door, the PEZ dispenser got into action and released all 8 satellites, one by one, over the course of about 7 minutes! This marked the first payload deployment by Starship. About 15 minutes after the payloads were deployed, Ship 37 ignited a single sea-level Raptor engine, confirming the design works for an in-space burn; and finally, about 10 minutes later, it began reentry as plasma was forming all around it. Many tile experiments and precious heat shield data were gathered during this phase, as well as much data on the Ship’s structural performance. As it continued its descent, now in the lower atmosphere, the flaps got tested in a real-life aerodynamic environment for the first time, guiding the Ship down to its target splashdown point… and it reached that: about 1 hour and 6 minutes into the flight, Ship 37 successfully ignited all 3 of its sea-level Raptors, flipped, and softly landed just 3 meters away from the target! This concluded the first successful mission of a Block 2 Ship, finally putting a success (and a great one!) on SpaceX’s Starship records this year.
Ship 37 during its landing burn. Credit: SpaceX
Flight 11 vehicles
Starship is the biggest and most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, standing 123.1 m tall and 9 m wide, with a liftoff mass of more than 5000 tons. It is composed of 2 stages: the first stage, or Super Heavy Booster, stands 71 m tall and is powered by 33 Raptor engines, which give a thrust at liftoff of 74.4 MN, more than twice that of Saturn V! The second stage, or Ship, stands 52.1 m tall and is powered by 6 Raptor engines: 3 vacuum-optimized, or RVacs, and 3 sea-level optimized, or center. Starship is, in poor words, the vehicle of the future: both stages are designed and developed for full and rapid reusability, which will decrease the costs dramatically for trips to LEO, the Moon, Mars, and beyond!
Booster 15-2
Booster 15 during lift on OLM, under heavy fog. Credit: SpaceX
Booster 15-2 will fly for its second (and last) time on Flight 11, after powering the ill-fated Flight 8 on March 6th, 2025. On this flight, it will become the second booster of the Starship program to be reused and will be EXPENDED, like previous boosters 14 and 16, to test a new descent profile and engine configuration over the Gulf of Mexico. It features no significant changes from its past flight, but it has received refurbishment and is re-flying 24 out of its 33 Raptor engines.
June 4-8th, 2024: stacking of Booster 15 began in Megabay 1.
September 22nd, 2024: stacking of Booster 15 was completed, with the mating of the 2 tanks.
December 21st, 2024: Booster 15 was rolled out to the Massey’s test site to undergo its cryogenic campaign.
December 27th, 2024: Cryo test 1 of Booster 15’s CH4 tank.
December 28th, 2024: Cryo test 2 of both Booster 15’s tanks.
December 29th, 2024: Booster 15 was rolled back to MB1.
February 8th, 2025: Booster 15 was rolled to the Launch Site for its engine test campaign.
February 9th, 2025: Static fire 1 of all 33 Raptor engines of Booster 15, lasting 8.5 seconds.
February 10th, 2025: Booster 15 was rolled back to the Production Site.
February 25th, 2025: Booster 15 was rolled to the Launch Site ahead of Starship Flight 8, with its HSR rolling separately after it entered and went out of Megabay 1 twice in the week.
February 26th, 2025: Booster 15’s HSR was removed and lifted down, likely to solve some issues.
February 27th, 2025: Booster 15’s HSR was lifted back up.
March 2nd, 2025: Ship 34 was lifted atop Booster 15.
March 3rd, 2025: launch attempt #1, aborted for Ship issues at T-40s, which ended up requiring a destack and several days of inspections.
March 6th, 2025: Launch #1: Booster 15 launched, powering Ship 34 into space. Despite the latter’s demise before SECO, Booster 15 performed well, with 2 engines not ignited on boostback burn and 1 on landing burn, as well as a weird descent profile. Despite these problems, however, it was successfully caught, marking the 3rd time a catch happened and the last so far.
March 8th, 2025: Booster 15 was rolled back to Megabay 1 for refurbishment. Although this isn’t known, this likely includes thorough checks of all systems, including engines, avionics, software, reinforcements, the top of the booster, weld lines, grid fins and chines, internal components, etc… during these inspections, 9 engines were deemed not fit for flight, or at least weren’t flown.
September 6th, 2025: Booster 15 was rolled to the launch site for a requalification static fire.
September 7th, 2025: Static fire #2: a successful 9-second static fire, requalifying the engines and the booster for flight.
September 8th, 2025: Booster 15 was moved back to Megabay 1 for final launch preparations.
September 26th, 2025: Booster 15 was moved to the rocket garden.
Ship 38
Ship 38 during lift. Credit: SpaceX
Ship 38 will be flying on Flight 11, being expended at the end of a suborbital flight in the Indian Ocean. SpaceX hasn’t announced any change to the Ship, but we will know more once we see it roll out for flight… software-wise, on the other hand, SpaceX has updated it to include some interesting maneuvers during the final phases of flight.
December 6th, 2024: Ship 38’s LOX header tank was spotted.
March 28th, 2025: stacking began, with the nosecone and the payload section being joined together.
May 27th, 2025: stacking was completed after about 2 months.
July 27th, 2025: Ship 38 rolled to Massey’s for its cryogenic test campaign.
July 27th, 2025: Ambient pressure test #1 & payload bay door test: Ship 38 conducted an ambient pressure test, loading it with inert gases to test its structural performance, and a payload bay door test, in which the payload bay door was opened.
July 30th, 2025: cryogenic tests 1 & 2: Ship 38 conducted 2 separate cryogenic tests in one day, loading both tanks each time.
August 1st, 2025: following the completion of the cryogenic campaign, Ship 38 rolled back to Megabay 2.
August 14th, 2025: first Raptor engines for Ship 38 were delivered to Megabay 2.
September 17th, 2025: Ship 38 was rolled to the launch site for static fire; here, we could see the state of it, with no visible changes and a pretty complete heatshield, only missing some tiles at the tip of the nosecone.
September 18th, 2025: Aborted static fire #1: Ship 38 aborted its first attempt following issues with the SQD interface.
September 19th, 2025: Aborted static fire #2: Ship 38 aborted its static fire attempt halfway through propellant loading for unknown reasons. Given the amount of propellant loaded, it looked like SpaceX was attempting to directly conduct a 6-engine static fire, skipping the single-engine one.
September 22nd, 2025: Static fire #1: Ship 38 successfully conducted a roughly 10-second static fire with all 6 of its Raptor engines, becoming the first Ship to skip the single-engine static fire, as well as the last Block 2 Ship to be tested.
September 23rd, 2025: Ship 38 was rolled to Megabay 2 for final prelaunch preparations.
Flight profile
Flight 11 profile. Credit: SpaceX
Pre-launch countdown
Final preparations for launch start at T-12h, when SpaceX’s countdown clock begins ticking in the Mission Control room. It’s at this point that they decide whether to proceed or not with the flight. If they decide to proceed, the following hours are full of checks, inspections, and final touches before the road is closed at T-7h. Even with the road closed, we usually see workers staying at the pad for a while longer, so don’t be worried if you see cars there.
At T-6/3h (the timeline is variable and not critical) we usually see the chopsticks go into catch position at the top of the tower, and even with no catch the position will be the same. By T-4h, the pad needs to be clear, because the tank farm will begin conditioning, where they chill down the ground lines ahead of propellant loading, although we have seen workers overstaying for troubleshooting an issue or checking things out more thoroughly, so don’t worry if you see workers at the pad after this point; but by T-2h, the pad needs to be clear, because 2 important vents are about to come up back-to-back: the OLM vent, coming from the OLM, to chill the lines that bring propellant from the ground tanks to the Super Heavy Booster, and a Tower vent coming from the tower to chill the lines that bring propellant to the Ship. These vents are a sign that SpaceX is heading into terminal countdown.
Then, things will start to get real at T-1h15m, when the Flight Director will conduct the GO/NO-GO poll for propellant loading. If all systems are GO, then operations will proceed into prop loading, starting with the Ship CH4 and LOX loading, although exact timelines still have to come out.
Following this, the Booster will start loading propellants, with CH4 starting first and LOX beginning a few minutes later.
The 39 Raptor engines onboard the whole vehicle will begin engine chill at T-19m40s, where a small amount of cold, liquid propellant will be flowed through the engines’ turbomachinery to cool it down ahead of ignition.
Propellant loading will be wrapping up at T-3m20s for the Ship and T-2m50s for the Booster, and this will be followed by the last minutes of the countdown. At T-40s, there’s a hold that teams can use if there’s something wrong or that requires more time to take a decision, which can last up to 30 minutes. However, if nothing goes wrong, the vehicle will go through that, followed by the flight director’s GO callout for launch at T-30s.
At T-15s, the DSS (Detonation Suppression System, a mix of water and nitrogen) will be sprayed under the OLM to eliminate any hazardous and flammable substance, followed by the activation of the water deluge system at T-10s. The Raptor ignition sequence will begin at T-3s, with the liftoff at T0.
Flight timeline
Following liftoff, hopefully under the power of all 33 Raptor engines of Booster 15, Starship will ascend into the skies and start pitching downrange, where it will reach the point of peak stress on the rocket (Max-Q) about 1 minute into the flight.
As the full stack goes higher in the atmosphere and further into flight, the moment of separation will arrive about 2.5 minutes into the mission: it starts with shutting down 30 out of the 33 Raptor engines on the Booster and igniting the Ship’s 6 Raptor engines while the 2 vehicles are still attached; it’s only after Ship 38’s engines have ignited that the 2 will separate, with the Booster flipping back for the boostback burn as it reignites the middle ring of 10 engines, for a total of 13. Booster 15 will conduct a roughly 40-s-long boostback burn, aimed at putting its trajectory for an on-target splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. Immediately after engine shutdown, the hot staging ring will separate from the vehicle for 1 final time.
As the Ship keeps doing its ascent burn, the Booster will descend lower and lower into the atmosphere, with a predetermined angle of attack (AoA): these AoA experiments started with Booster 14 on Flight 9, which pushed the envelope too much, exploding due to structural failure of the downcomer after descending at 17° of AoA. Then, Booster 16 on Flight 10 lowered this angle and successfully survived the descent, albeit with some issues, such as a grid fin malfunctioning prior to the landing burn; and now, Booster 15 will descend at another unknown angle, trying to survive to gather data about the Booster performance and the weak spots. These experiments are important for a reason: the higher the AoA, the higher the lift, which translates to a lower terminal velocity and therefore less propellant to be used to break the Booster on landing burn, which means the saved propellant can be used on ascent to increase payload to orbit! However, the higher the AoA, the higher the forces, which means SpaceX needs to find a balance between the maximum AoA they can have on descent while still retaining the vehicle’s structural performance; on Block 3, the Booster will be more heavily reinforced, allowing for even higher AoAs than were tested on Block 2, but it’s still important to gather data.
Should the Booster survive the descent and reach the landing burn (highly likely), it will test out yet another engine configuration: the landing burn will start, as usual, with all 13 Raptor engines but will then transition to 5 engines (likely the 3 center ones and 2 of the middle ones, probably at opposite points in the ring) for fine-tuning the path of the vehicle; after the path has been confirmed, the Booster will transition to 3 engines for the end of the landing burn, hovering above the ocean as it shuts them all down and drops into the ocean for one final explosion, one final test, and one final closure for Block 2 Boosters. SpaceX has said they want to test the vehicle dynamics as the Booster transitions between phases and also test out this new 5-engine configuration, which is planned to be used on Block 3 vehicles to fine-tune the Booster’s path and add additional redundancy in the case of engine-out events.
As for Ship 38, it’s planned to complete its ascent burn approximately 9 minutes after launch, with the 3 RVacs shutting down first and the 3 sea-level engines shutting down a few seconds later: this set of operations is done because the SL engines can gimbal, correcting and fine-tuning the trajectory of the Ship, once most of the thrust and delta-V has been already received. After SECO (Secondary Engine Cut Off), Ship 38 will enter a 40-minute coast phase, filled with experiments: starting off strong, we’ll have a payload deployment test, with the Ship opening its payload bay door and releasing the 8 1.9-ton V3 Starlink simulators. This test is a repeat of last flight’s payload deployment, but likely with some improvements: for example, a couple of simulators hit the payload bay door (without causing any damage) on Flight 10, so SpaceX may have implemented improvements to the PEZ dispenser following real-world data; we may also be looking at faster deployment times, but we’ll have to see about that.
Following that, Ship 38 will relight an engine, a sea-level one, in space, confirming once again that those systems are working, nearing certification to reach orbit (as this is to simulate a deorbit burn). This burn structurally damaged a flap last time, so there likely will be reinforcements to that.
And then, finally, Ship 38 will reenter: about 47 minutes after launch, plasma will begin to form on the Ship’s heatshield as it reenters into Earth’s atmosphere! Ship 38 is expected to survive reentry and gather data on additional experiments on its heat shield: while this time there aren’t any metallic or actively cooled tiles, SpaceX has removed tiles in key areas of the vehicle to see how they respond to contact with the atmosphere; some of these missing tiles do not have a backup ablative layer underneath but will have the Ship “skin” in contact with the atmosphere. During reentry, SpaceX will validate the performance of the heatshield during reentry, seeing what works and what doesn’t, for the final Block 2 Ship reentry; and then, what is in my opinion the coolest part will come as the Ship passes through the heating phase and approaches the thickest layers of the atmosphere: there, the vehicle’s flaps will take control of the vehicle and will guide it, as new subsonic landing algorithms will be tested. These algorithms will be used to test, as realistically as possible, how a Ship will return to the launch site and will therefore perform several maneuvers, including a major banking maneuver: my interpretation of this maneuver is that the Ship will initially target offshore, in the Gulf of Mexico, flying over Starbase before turning back and heading for the catch tower. However, this is not confirmed, and we’ll have to see what SpaceX makes of that.
The flight will end with Ship 38 igniting its 3 center engines and making an on-target splashdown in the Indian Ocean, concluding the final Block 2 flight.
So, as you saw, this flight will be action-filled and absolutely amazing!
Why is this flight special?
This flight is special… all Starship launches are, but this one is for a different reason. It’s not so much for its flight profile or the milestones (although there will be some cool and interesting ones), but for its significance in the Starship program, as it will close different chapters:
Last launch to feature a Block 2 Booster
Last launch to feature a Block 2 Ship
Last launch to take place from the current Pad A configuration, making it the last to use the current OLM, tower, SQD, BQD, and tank farm version
Last launch featuring Raptor 2
Last launch of the year.
Basically, this flight closes chapters on current vehicles, engines, and pad. Everything will change from now on: starting with Flight 12 (currently scheduled for early 2026), SpaceX will debut the Block 3 versions of Ship and Booster, which will feature incredible upgrades and differences to make production and operation easier and more efficient! Among these changes, some of the most interesting are the switch to Raptor 3, the next generation of Raptor, which will allow for a mass reduction since it won’t require engine shielding, making the vehicle more than 40 t lighter; the integration of catch points onto the grid fins (yes, from now on all catches will happen on the grid fins); the switch from 4 to 3 grid fins, now using a different shape, placed 90° apart; and the use of 2 BQDs (1 for LOX and 1 for CH4) to load propellants into the vehicle. Block 3 will be the generation where things get real, where we’ll see Ships being caught and reused, orbital refueling, high launch cadence, and much more.
So, while it’s a little sad to say goodbye to the Blocks who have accompanied us for 2.5 years, it’s exciting and inspiring to look back and see how far we’ve come and look ahead to see what’s coming.
Get ready and enjoy this flight, as it will close a long-lived chapter… just to start one that’s a lot better.
References
SpaceX - Starship's Eleventh Flight Test
Booster 15 (B15) | Starship SpaceX Wiki
Ship 38 (S38) | Starship SpaceX Wiki
