Overview
- The 403-foot Starship-Super Heavy lifted off from Starbase at 6:23 p.m. CDT, with the booster splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico and the ship splashing down in the Indian Ocean as planned with no recovery.
- Super Heavy tested the new 13-5-3 landing-burn sequence to increase resilience to engine outages, using reused booster B15 after a prior flight earlier this year.
- The upper stage reignited a Raptor engine in space and deployed eight Starlink satellite simulators before executing reentry maneuvers toward its splashdown.
- Engineers intentionally removed select heat-shield tiles to stress-test vulnerable areas during reentry as SpaceX refines a reusable thermal-protection system.
- Flight 11 closes the Version 2 campaign as SpaceX shifts to Version 3 with upgraded Raptors, larger propellant tanks, and a new pad with a flame trench, ahead of orbital refueling demonstrations needed for Artemis missions.