Flight 11 Overview

On Monday, October 13th, 2025 at 6:15pm Booster 15-2 and Ship 38 lifted off from Launch Pad 1 at SpaceX’s Starbase, Texas launch facility. Hoping to carry on from the success of Flight 10, Flight 11’s goals were expanded from the previous mission. For Flight 11, Ship 38 and Booster 15-2 were given differing modifications, tests and goals from Flight 10’s ship and booster. One of the most notable modifications was that Ship 38’s thermal protection system (TPS) had heat tiles removed in new specific locations in order to stress test heating in these specific areas. Having rolled out to the just over 48 hours prior to launch, the Ship was stacked and prepped Saturday evening for launch on Monday.

Following liftoff and separation, Booster 15 entered its boostback burn to put it on a return trajectory for splashdown many miles offshore into the Gulf. For this flight, this Booster which previously flew on Flight 8, would be the second time a Super Heavy had been reused. This booster would also demonstrate a planned 13 engine “landing” burn. Utilizing the same approach that Flight 10’s booster did, 15-2 would descend, ignite 12 of the planned 13 engines and come to a hover a few hundred feet above the water before shutting down and dropping to the waves below. This change in the landing burn maneuver was done to test and demonstrate the “high-thrust” landing burn that the upcoming V3 booster will utilize.

Meanwhile, following separation which could be seen as far east as Florida, Starship would then complete a successful full duration ascent burn, enter its coast phase, and soon deploy its 8 Starlink simulators. A little later into the mission, the third successful in-flight Raptor engine relight test would take place. Following this test, Ship 38 would resume its coast phase before beginning re-entry, maintaining attitude control as plasma began to streak from its heat shield. As ship 38 began to come out of re-entry, it had one final new test to perform, a dynamic banking maneuver which mimics future return trajectories to the launch site to enable catches of Starship at the launch tower. 

The TPS still has a ways to go before it’s anywhere near mature, but this flight, at least from the outside, seems to indicate SpaceX is making improvements with the heat shield. Overall, Flight 11 ended as a largely successful test flight for the Starship Program, with Booster and Ship meeting all of their stated pre-flight goals. With its successful splashdown and Boosters successful demonstrations, this flight marks the close of the 2025 Starship campaign. 2026 will introduce the next iteration of Starship and Superheavy, V3, on the completely redesigned launch pad at Tower 2 at Starbase.

This maneuver began 58 minutes into the mission, with it being described as a “powerslide” during the SpaceX webcast. Ship 38 passed through a second Max-Q during this maneuver successfully. During final descent, Starship would reorient itself for its final “belly flop” fall to its pinpoint splashdown location in the Indian Ocean. Exiting the belly flop, Starship entered its final flip maneuver, igniting its 3 sea level Raptor engines and successfully splashing down at 1 hour, 6 minutes and 13 seconds after liftoff from Starbase, Texas.

As seen on SpaceX’s live feed, the TPS looks to have fared better on this flight than previous flights. However, there were notable tank punctures/leaks seen bleeding through holes where tiles were removed or lost during flight. The most major of the punctures was near the aft of the ship somewhere along the oxygen tank. This leak was very near a section of tile that had been removed for in-flight testing, so it still remains to be seen how a fully shielded ship will handle re-entry. A notable difference on this flight as well is the apparent lack of burn through on the rear flaps that has been seen on every previous flight that has made it to re-entry in some capacity. These steps forward are a good sign that SpaceX is making progress in improving the heat shield with each launch.

The Story of Pad 1, V1 and the Missteps and Redemption of V2

With 2025 bringing the end of this first era of the Starship Program, a brief history of Pad 1 is due. The pad’s tower began its stacking in early 2021, eventually being completed later that year. Once the tower was installed by July, Ship and Booster quick disconnects and GSE were installed over the following months. The final critical part would also be put into place in late July, the first version of the Orbital Launch Mount. Work would continue on Pad 1 up until it was finally ready for its debut launch in April, 2023.

After a delay of a few days for its initial planned launch date, Ship 24 and Booster 7 took flight on the hazy morning of April 20th, 2023 from Pad 1, marking the first full stack flight from the first iteration of the Orbital Launch Mount (OLM). Ship 24 and Booster 7 climbed into the skies before eventually losing attitude control and ultimately succumbing to the automatic flight termination system (AFTS) after a lengthy delay. This liftoff ended up excavating a massive crater underneath the OLM after structural failure of the concrete pad beneath the mount, sending countless tons of dust and dirt into the air which rained down on South Texas, as well as nearby Port Isabel. This failure of the surface underneath the OLM prompted SpaceX to devise an unconventional method to prevent similar failures in the future, the “showerhead.”

Come November of 2023, SpaceX would successfully complete, test and ready the “showerhead,” a massive water cooled metal plate equipped with upward and outward facing jets that deploy water at high pressure during engine ignition, for sound and heat suppression. On the morning of November 18th, 2023, the next pairing of Starship and Super Heavy (now equipped with its newly implemented Hot Staging Ring) lifted off, proving successful the new sound suppression system. Ship 25 became the first Starship to reach space, though it would not return as the AFTS destroyed the vehicle before shutdown.

Moving forward to Flight 3 in March and Flight 4 in June of 2024, Pad 1 continued its successful run of launches without repeating the failures of IFT-1. Flight 3 would see Ship 28 become the first Starship to undergo atmospheric re-entry, eventually succumbing to an unintended roll and ultimately breaking apart during the hypersonic regime above the Indian Ocean. Next up, Flight 4 would successfully launch on a blindingly foggy morning on June 6th, 2024. Booster 11 launched Ship 29 without issue and would mark the first Starship Flight where both ship and booster successfully splashed down softly, laying the groundwork for Pad 1’s next milestone.

On the morning of October 13th, 2024, just as the Sun began to rise, Booster 12 and Ship 30 took to the skies above Pad 1. Climbing past Max-Q and into hot-staging, Ship 30 and Booster 12 separated, with the Ship heading downrange for its eventual successful on target splashdown in the Indian Ocean. Booster 12 meanwhile began its boostback burn, clearing every requirement to be able to attempt the first ever catch by the launch tower’s mechanical arms (“Mechazilla.”) Passing boostback and orienting itself for re-entry, Booster 12 committed to the catch. With no Raptor failures on landing burn ignition, Booster 12 slowed to a hover and “gently” guided itself into the waiting arms of Mechazilla. SpaceX had successfully caught Booster 12 with the launch tower on their first ever attempt.

Just over a month later, on November 19th, Flight 6 would take the final V1 Starship to the skies for Starship’s first evening launch, and eventually a successful morning splashdown in the Indian Ocean. Booster 13, however, aborted its catch attempt due to loss of communications with the launch tower, ultimately splashing down offshore into the Gulf of Mexico. This would mark the final Starship flight of 2024, with all eyes looking ahead to Starship V2.

2025 was set to be a key year for the Starship program, but unfortunately SpaceX’s hopes for a high flight rate were met with setback after setback due to the newly introduced V2 ships. The launch of Flight 7 on January 16th, 2025 marked the first launch of the second version of the Starship upper stage, and the start of troubles related to that. Booster 14 successfully sent Ship 33 skyward and on its way downrange before returning to the Launch Tower for Super Heavy’s second successful catch. Ship 33 however would not make it far, eventually failing above the Gulf and experiencing a Rapid Unplanned Disassembly (RUD) around SECO. 

Flight 8 later in March also saw issues with Ship 34, which suffered a leak, caught fire, and shortly thereafter experienced its own RUD, losing attitude control mid-flight after stage separation. Booster 15 returned successfully to Pad 1 for a catch, which is currently the last catch to have been attempted. Flight 9 would see yet another V2 failure with Ship 35 experiencing its own leak that led to a loss of attitude control. Flight 9 also featured the first successful reflight of a Super Heavy Booster with B14.

Moving forward to Flight 10 in August, Pad 1 had to adapt for this campaign due to the energetic loss of Ship 36 during testing at SpaceX’s Massey’s testing site. Because of the loss of immediate testing capabilities at Massey’s, SpaceX wasted no time in devising a solution by designing and implementing an adapter to allow the Pad 1 OLM to support Ship static fires. After working out the initial kinks, they successfully static fired Ship 37 on Pad 1, leading to it launching on Booster 16 in late August. With no unexpected loss of either Ship or Booster during the mission, Flight 10 successfully completed all of its stated goals. With no signs of slowing down, SpaceX reconverted the Pad 1 OLM after Flight 10 to successfully test Ship 38 ahead of Flight 11.

What’s To Come, 2026 and Beyond

With the sunsetting of Pad 1 in its current state following the success of Flight 11, SpaceX is moving forward with Pad 2’s completely new overhauled design, now incorporating a proper flame trench and flame deflection system. With the testing and launch of Flight 12 still many months away, Starbase is now entering a quiet period. Work will not be stopping however, as Pad 2 still has work to be done to be ready to support the next launch campaign, and the V3 hardware that is compatible with the new Pad is still very much in flow. Meanwhile, Pad 1 will begin the process of being updated to the new launch mount and flame trench design, with no timeline estimates on how long that will take. It is not known exactly when the next launch from Starbase will be, however it is almost certainly going to be in 2026.

As we close out this chapter of Starbase, the future remains in question for various reasons. Artemis III, currently set for No Earlier Than (NET) 2027, needs Starship to be a functioning vehicle to land the next Astronauts on the surface of the Moon. But to get to that point there are still a number of hurdles to be crossed such as the required in-flight refueling tests, a fully and rapidly re-usable heat shield that isn’t giving way in critical locations, the first ship catch, and while it undoubtedly has the capability, the vehicle has still yet to reach a full stable orbit. 

That said, the pace isn’t slowing down with the Starship program as SpaceX is actively working on bringing Starship to Florida at Launch Complexes 39a and 37. It hasn’t been an easy or painless process, however, as there has been scrutiny from locals and competitors alike regarding public beach access, launch opportunity availability, and more. Even with these concerns, progress is marching forward to bring Starship to the Cape. Just as with Starbase, a new massive Booster and Ship manufacturing facility, their new “Gigabay” is under construction at SpaceX’s Roberts Road facility on Kennedy Space Center property. Starbase’s Gigabay is well under way at the location of the original High Bay.

The future for Starship remains in flux, with pressure mounting from NASA to have it ready for Artemis III. The success of Flights 10 and 11 provided SpaceX with good data on their V2 ship modifications and where to go from there. With Flight 12 next in line and set to debut the third iteration designs of both Starship and Super Heavy, eyes remained glued to that launch facility down in South Texas, and on the progress of the Starship facilities at Cape Canaveral. 2026 is set to be a new era for not only Starbase, but for the Starship program, and only time will unveil what is to come for the Starship Program.

Edited by Beverly Casillas