Oct. 13 (UPI) — SpaceX on Monday launched the 11th flight test of its Starship, the two-stage, heavy-lift launch vehicle designed to take humans back to the moon and eventually to Mars.
Liftoff was at 6:23 p.m. CT at the company’s Starbase compound in Texas near the Gulf of Mexico and about 20 miles from Brownsville.
One hour and 15 minutes before launch, SpaceX conducted a “go/no-go” poll, and moved forward.
About one hour before scheduled liftoff, SpaceX began loading the 400-foot-tall Starship with 11 million pounds of propellants that included methane and oxygen.
A live-streamed broadcast of the test flight began about 30 minutes before liftoff. There were more than 1 million viewers.
The final clearance was 30 seconds left on the clock.
A few minutes after liftoff, the Super Heavy booster disengaged from the Starship after 33 engines were shut down. The Starship spacecraft then ignited its own six engines.
Super Heavy conducted some experimental maneuvers and had a successful landing burn off Texas’ coast about 8 1/2 minutes after launch.
During the splashdown, cheers were heard during SpaceX’s live coverage.
For re-entry, tiles were removed to intentionally stress-test vulnerable areas across the vehicle.
The spacecraft, going more than 16,000 mph and about 120 miles from Earth, fired its six engines for six minutes, and deployed eight satellite “simulators” like in August. It took about one minute for each one to be sent from a “payload ,” ending 25 minutes after liftoff.
SpaceX has designed them to simulate its Starlink satellites for Internet service.
Ultimately, about one hour after liftoff, the Starship vehicle will try to splash down gently in the Indian Ocean.
In the August test, SpaceX succeeded in its third attempt to launch the 10th Starship test mission after SpaceX officials scrubbed two prior launches.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk watched the launch from the site.
SpaceX next will launch Starship from another site in Texas with missions in Florida planned.
SpaceX hopes for a crewed landing on the moon for NASA in 2027. Twelve men have walked on the moon with the last one in 1972.
SpaceX’s main business is launching nearly 8,600 Starlink satellites into orbit, according to data aggregated by Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist with the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
The privae company plans to use the Starship to launch the satellites instead of the smaller Falcon 9.
