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Sunday, October 19, 2025

SpaceX Starship Suborbital Ascent, Booster Separation & Reentry | 11th Flight Test | Starbase Texas

SpaceX Starship Suborbital Ascent, Booster Separation & Reentry 11th Flight Test

Super Heavy hot-staging and boostback burn
Starship ascends
Super Heavy hot-staging and boostback burn
Starship ascends
Starship ascends
Starship reenters Earth’s atmosphere on Flight 11. Data gathered from this flight will inform future Starship missions that will return to the launch site for catch and reuse.
Starship reenters Earth’s atmosphere
Starship reenters Earth’s atmosphere

A SpaceX Starship lifted off at 6:23 p.m. Central Time (CT) October 13, 2025, on the eleventh flight test. In these images, you can view Starship's ascent and Earth atmospheric reentry during its suborbital flight, including the Super Heavy booster's separation from Starship and its hot-staging and boostback burn.

Watch the full Starship 11th Test Flight here:

"This was the final flight of the second-generation Starship and first generation Super Heavy booster, as well as the final launch from the current configuration of Pad 1. Every major objective of the flight test was achieved, providing valuable data as we prepare the next generation of Starship and Super Heavy."

"Starship re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere and was able to gather extensive data on the performance of its heatshield as it was intentionally stressed to test the limits of the vehicle’s capabilities. In the final minutes of flight, Starship performed a dynamic banking maneuver to mimic the trajectory that future missions returning to Starbase will fly. Starship then guided itself using its four flaps to the pre-planned splashdown zone in the Indian Ocean, successfully executing a landing flip, landing burn, and soft splashdown."

"Focus now turns to the next generation of Starship and Super Heavy with multiple vehicles currently in active build and preparing for tests. This next iteration will be used for the first Starship orbital flights, operational payload missions, propellant transfer, and more as we iterate to a fully and rapidly reusable vehicle with service to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond."

SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket—collectively referred to as Starship—represent a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond. Starship is currently the "world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed", capable of carrying up to 150 metric tonnes fully reusable and 250 metric tonnes expendable.

Key Starship Parameters:
Height: 123m/403ft
Diameter: 9m/29.5ft
Payload to LEO: 100–150t (fully reusable)

"Starship is essential to both SpaceX’s plans to deploy its next-generation Starship system as well as for NASA, which will use a lunar lander version of Starship for landing astronauts on the Moon during the Artemis III mission through the Human Landing System (HLS) program."

Learn more about Starship:

Download the Free Starship User Guide (PDF):

Credit: Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX)
Date: Oct. 13, 2025

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