SpaceX launched the final test flight of the current Starship configuration on Monday night. The mission successfully achieved all of its primary objectives, moving the entire program into its next phase of development.
The nearly 400-foot-tall rocket lifted off from Starbase, Texas at 6:23 PM local time. The Super Heavy booster, which was reused from a test in March, attempted a new landing-burn profile. It reignited thirteen engines before throttling down to five, and finally to three for a final hover. The booster completed a planned soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico approximately seven minutes after launch.
Meanwhile, the Starship upper stage deployed eight mock Starlink satellite simulators. It also trialed a new dynamic banking maneuver profile that the company intends to use for future attempts to return to the pad at Starbase. The upper stage subsequently splashed down in the Indian Ocean. This launch marked the final flight for the second-generation Starship and first-generation Super Heavy rocket variants.
As in the previous test flight, engineers conducted experiments with the upper stage’s heat shield tiles. These tests included selectively removing some tiles and trying novel tile variations to gather important data during reentry. SpaceX also duplicated other key milestones from the tenth flight, such as deploying the satellite simulators and relighting one of the six Raptor engines while in orbit.
Monday’s test formally initiates the program’s next phase, which involves flying an upgraded prototype known as V3. This new vehicle is outfitted for in-orbit docking and propellant-transfer demonstrations. These capabilities are essential for spacecraft destined for the Moon and Mars. SpaceX states that V3 also incorporates structural changes and upgrades to the Raptor engine intended to increase its lifting capacity, though the company did not provide specific figures.
This next iteration will be used for the first Starship orbital flights, operational payload missions, propellant transfer, and more as the company works toward a fully and rapidly reusable vehicle for service to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
In parallel, SpaceX is upgrading Pad A at Starbase and is shifting launches to Pad B. The company is also working to build dual Starship launch pads at Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Starship is the most powerful rocket ever developed. It serves as the cornerstone for both NASA’s Artemis campaign and SpaceX’s plan to begin deploying higher-capacity Starlink satellites.
Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy applauded the mission, calling it another major step toward landing Americans on the Moon’s south pole. SpaceX was awarded more than four billion dollars to develop a human-rated variant of Starship, known as the Human Landing System, for the Artemis 3 crewed mission that is currently scheduled for 2027. Meeting that date will require SpaceX to first demonstrate increasingly complex milestones, especially orbital docking and in-orbit propellant transfer.