SpaceX launches rocket from Starbase in Texas

TEXAS – SpaceX launched the Starship test, Flight 11, on Monday from the company’s South Texas launch facilities.

According to the company, the flight will build on the successful demonstrations from Starship’s tenth flight test with flight experiments gathering data for the next generation Super Heavy booster, stress-testing Starship’s heatshield, and demonstrating maneuvers that will mimic the upper stage’s final approach for a future return to launch site.

“For reentry, tiles have been removed from Starship to intentionally stress-test vulnerable areas across the vehicle...To mimic the path a ship will take on future flights returning to Starbase, the final phase of Starship’s trajectory on Flight 11 includes a dynamic banking maneuver and will test subsonic guidance algorithms prior to a landing burn and splashdown in the Indian Ocean,” SpaceX said on its website.