WASHINGTON — SpaceX successfully completed the final flight of version 2 of Starship on Oct. 13, performing a series of in-flight tests as the company prepares to begin launching an upgraded version of the reusable rocket.
Starship lifted off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in South Texas at 7:23 p.m. Eastern and ascended on its planned suborbital trajectory. The Super Heavy booster, which previously flew on Flight 8 in March, tested an alternate engine configuration after stage separation, with five Raptor engines rather than three burning for one of the final phases. The booster made a soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico offshore from Starbase as planned.
Starship, flying on a suborbital trajectory similar to previous missions, deployed eight Starlink mass simulators while in space. Later, it performed a brief relight of one of its six Raptor engines.
Starship then made it through reentry, with SpaceX testing both the effects of missing heat shield tiles in strategic locations and a “dynamic banking maneuver” later in its descent that the company plans to use on future flights when the vehicle returns to Starbase for a catch landing. The vehicle splashed down in the Indian Ocean a little more than 66 minutes after liftoff.
The launch concludes a brief but turbulent history of version 2 of Starship. The vehicle’s first three launches, in January, March and May, all suffered mission-ending failures in flight. In the first two cases, those failures occurred during ascent, resulting in debris falling over the Caribbean. In June, a Starship upper stage exploded on a test stand at Starbase during preparations for a static-fire test.
SpaceX recovered with the Flight 10 mission Aug. 26, which completed all its planned major objectives, from deployment of Starlink mass simulators in space to a pinpoint reentry and soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean.
Next for SpaceX is version 3 of the vehicle, featuring upgrades to increase payload performance. This version will likely be the first to reach orbit after one or more suborbital test flights. SpaceX plans to use the vehicle to deploy larger next-generation Starlink satellites tested on recent flights.
“We’re actively building multiple next-generation v3 Starship and Super Heavy vehicles in the factory,” SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot said during the launch webcast. That includes a “complete overhaul” of the Starship upper stage, with upgrades ranging from new Raptor engines to docking adapters that will allow Starships to dock for in-space propellant transfers.
The new version of Super Heavy includes an upgraded fuel transfer line that SpaceX said is about the same size as a Falcon 9 booster, as well as an integrated “hot-staging” ring at the top of the booster that will remain attached rather than be jettisoned. The booster’s grid fins have also been redesigned, with three instead of four.
“Bottom line, this is the Starship we’re planning to use for all of our next major milestones,” Huot said.
The vehicle will also play a key role in NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration campaign, sending a lunar lander version of Starship to the moon for the Artemis 3 crewed landing. While that mission remains scheduled for 2027, there is widespread skepticism about that timeline because of development delays. NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel noted at a Sept. 19 public meeting that the mission could be “years late” because of Starship delays.
SpaceX did not address those issues during the webcast but updated its website to advertise future cargo missions to the moon starting in 2028 and to Mars starting in 2030. SpaceX said it is charging $100 million per metric ton of cargo for both lunar and Martian surface deliveries.
