Whats next for SpaceXs Starship after Flight 11 success

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SpaceX’s Starship launches on its eleventh check flight from Starbase, Texas on Oct. 13, 2025. | Credit: SpaceX

The greatest and most highly effective rocket ever constructed is about to get even bigger.

On Monday (Oct. 13), SpaceX launched the eleventh check flight of its Starship megarocket, sending the 403-foot-tall (124 meters) vehicle aloft from its Starbase web site in South Texas.

The suborbital flight was a full success. Both of Starship‘s components — its Super Heavy booster and Starship (or “Ship” for short) higher stage — got here back to Earth for pinpoint splashdowns. Ship also managed to relight one of its engines in space and deploy eight dummy payloads.

Flight 11 was a big second for the Starship program, and not just because all the pieces went so effectively. It was also a swan tune, the ultimate liftoff of the vehicle’s “Version 2” variant.

“Focus now turns to the next generation of Starship and Super Heavy, with multiple vehicles currently in active build and preparing for tests,” SpaceX wrote in a Flight 11 wrap-up post.

“This next iteration will be used for the first Starship orbital flights, operational payload missions, propellant transfer and more as we iterate to a fully and rapidly reusable vehicle with service to Earth orbit, the moon, Mars and beyond,” the company added.

That next iteration is Starship Version 3, which can be about 5 toes (1.5 m) taller than its predecessor. V3 will look a lot like V2, but there can be big variations “under the hood,” SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot said during the Flight 11 launch webcast on Monday.

For instance, the V3 Ship’s propulsion system has been overhauled to accommodate Raptor 3, a new, brawnier model of the engine that powers both of Starship’s levels. (Super Heavy has 33 Raptors and Ship has six.)

“We’re also getting energy storage upgrades, tons of avionics changes — a lot of things that will enable longer-duration missions,” Huot said.

“One notable thing you’ll start seeing on the outside are these new docking adapters, which we’ll use when we bring two Starships together for propellant transfer,” he added. “That’s a core capability of Starship that we’re going to demonstrate next year.”

Indeed, in-space fuel switch is a essential half of any Starship deep-space mission. Ship higher levels certain for the moon or Mars will launch with a minimal quantity of propellant onboard (to save mass for payloads) and will therefore need to meet up with a number of “tanker” ships in Earth orbit to fuel up.

The V3 Super Heavy, meanwhile, options a redesigned fuel switch tube, a giant metallic construction that channels cryogenic liquid methane and liquid oxygen down to the booster’s Raptor engines.

“New boosters are also going to have an integrated hot stage, a lot more vent area, and it’s designed to be fully reusable,” Huot said. (The sizzling stage marks the junction of Super Heavy and Ship; the “hot” half refers to the fact that Ship begins firing its engines before it has totally separated from the booster.)

The V3 Super Heavy will also have just three grid fins — the waffle-like buildings that help the booster steer its approach back to Earth for pinpoint touchdowns — instead of V2’s 4.

“They’re 50% larger, though — much higher strength,” Huot said. “They’re also going to get used for vehicle lift and catch.”

The lifting and catching can be achieved by the Starship launch tower’s “chopstick” arms. These arms elevate Ship and Super Heavy onto the launch mount, and they’re going to also catch both autos when they arrive back home after liftoff. (SpaceX has carried out three such chopstick catches with Super Heavy to date but has not yet tried it with Ship.)

All 11 Starship check flights have lifted off from Starbase’s Orbital Launch Mount 1. That pad will go on hiatus for a spell, however, as it is overhauled to accommodate Starship V3.

“Among many other things, we’re installing a new orbital launch mount, a new flame trench system and upgrading the chopsticks for future catches,” Jake Berkowitz, a SpaceX lead propulsion engineer, said during Monday’s launch webcast. “So until that’s complete, we’ll be running launches from Pad 2, which will be online very soon.”

Related Stories:

— SpaceX launches giant Starship rocket for moon and Mars on eleventh check flight (video)

— (*11*)Starship and Super Heavy explained

— Starship Mars rocket met ‘every major goal’ on epic Flight 10 check launch, SpaceX says

Starship V3 can be succesful of flying to Mars and might effectively do so next 12 months, if testing continues to go effectively: SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has said the company would really like to launch a small fleet of uncrewed Starships to the Red Planet during the next alternative, which comes in late 2026. (Earth and Mars align correctly for interplanetary missions just once every 26 months.)

Over the long haul, however, SpaceX plans to rely on an even greater and more highly effective Starship — one that stands a whopping 466 toes (142 m) tall and sports activities 42 Raptors instead of the current 39. This V4 iteration is predicted to debut in 2027, Musk has said.

2027 might be a landmark 12 months, for both SpaceX and NASA. It’s when the company goals to launch its Artemis 3 mission, which is able to land astronauts on the moon for the first time since the Apollo period. The lunar lander for that epic mission can be a Starship higher stage.

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