The entire space scientific community had their eyes glued to the Boca Chica, Texas, launch pad on the night of October 14th at around 1:15 a.m. (French time) to observe a new test flight, the 11th, of SpaceX’s Starship.
Once again, and after two consecutive launch postponements, the world’s largest and most powerful rocket, Elon Musk’s, was in the hot seat.
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This 11th launch marked the end of a cycle, since the Starship launched was the last of its generation, with new versions expected for future launches, both for the upper stage and the booster.
It should be remembered that the Starship v2 used had experienced incidents during flights 7, 8, and 9, to the point that the SpaceX teams wondered if it wouldn’t be better to delay it a little and move directly to the third version.
This third generation of Starships will not only be larger and more powerful, but will also be the first to actually reach Earth orbit, enabling the deployment of the next-generation Starlink satellite constellations.
You don’t know the « boss, » Elon Musk, who, even if it meant putting additional pressure on himself, wanted to stick to the initial schedule and, above all, not fall behind in the race to the Moon against China. This is a real obsession for President Trump, who fears more than anything that Chinese « taikonauts » will be the first to set foot on the Moon.
Once again, Elon Musk was right: this 11th Starship flight was a complete success, despite the risks and complexity of the mission.
Indeed, this 11th mission was unlike any other.
Thus, SpaceX used a booster for takeoff that had already been used in March, during the 8th launch.
In addition, SpaceX engineers conducted a new deployment demonstration of eight Starlink simulators, as well as a re-ignition of a Raptor engine in space.
Instead of going directly from 13 engines to 3 for the final phase, the system used 5 engines on this occasion, testing the safety margin in the event of a spontaneous engine failure.
But the big news is that Elon Musk’s company voluntarily removed thousands of protective tiles from its rocket, deliberately exposing vulnerable areas to temperatures of over 1,400°C.
The goal was to discover the actual failure points of the system and thus understand the why and how of the potential failure of the heat shield.
True to his strategy of testing his rockets in real-world conditions, even if it means losing vehicles, Elon Musk humorously called this operation « controlled self-sabotage. »
After this success, Elon Musk declared, « This is an excellent job, » and NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy commented:
« Another important step toward landing Americans on the south pole of the Moon. The progress SpaceX demonstrated with today’s Starship test is essential for our Artemis missions. »
While we prepare for Artemis II, each flight reinforces our progress on Artemis III and allows us to beat China to return to the Moon!
The next step for Starship version V3: new technical maneuvers never before performed, such as catching up with the supply ship and refueling a rocket in space.
