Blastoff! SpaceX launches Starship on 11th flight test, booster splashes down

Nasa Space

SpaceX launched Starship's 11th test flight from Starbase in South Texas on Oct. 13, 2025. The Super Heavy booster successfully splashed down several minutes after separation.

Transcript

00:002 minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

00:30We have liftoff, go Super Heavy, go Starship. Thanks for all the historic flights, bad one.

00:44Vehicle's catching downrange.

00:50Hoosaraptor, chamber pressure nominal.

01:00Booster and ship nominal power and telemetry.

01:10Alright, we are about 45 seconds into flight. We're still getting the rattle here at Star Factory.

01:16We are seeing 33 out of 33 Raptor engines lit on Super Heavy as it arcs across the Gulf.

01:23Coming up next on Max-Q.

01:30Max-Q.

01:40So at this point, we've passed through that period of maximum aerodynamic pressure.

01:44The next thing we're looking forward to is going to be hot staging.

01:48So, we've got 33 out of 33 Raptors lit. Super Heavy makes its way uphill.

01:54Hot staging is going to be coming up in just a little over a minute.

01:59At that point, we're going to see all but three of those Raptor engines on Super Heavy shut down.

02:06Our version of Meeko. Most engines cut off instead of main engine.

02:15And then after that, we're going to release the clamps that are currently holding Starship to that hot stage adapter.

02:21It's then going to ignite its six Raptor engines to push it away from Super Heavy and then start making its flight uphill.

02:28So, in about 30 seconds, we're going to see the engines start to shut down on Super Heavy.

02:34You'll see them kind of shut off in separate banks until we've just got those three center engines that never stop running for this process.

02:42And then looking for six ship Raptors.

02:49Alright.

02:51Meeko coming up in about 10 seconds.

03:00See the engines throttling down.

03:03Booster engine cut off.

03:09Ship ignition.

03:11Stage separation.

03:20Boost back burn start up.

03:27Alright. Successful hot staging maneuver.

03:29So, we've got 12 to 13 engines lit back up on booster.

03:33So, it's doing its boost back.

03:35Real excitingly though, we've got six out of six Raptors lit on ship there.

03:39So, it's now going to continue to make its ascent into outer space.

03:45Meanwhile, this boost back is happening.

03:47We're using those 13 engines.

03:49So, everything, well, 12 out of the 13 and then we go down to three and then we're going to shut down for the end of boost back.

03:57That's sending Super Heavy back towards its planned splashdown zone in the Gulf.

04:01Right after we finish this boost back burn, we're also going to separate the hot stage.

04:09This will be the final time that we're doing this.

04:13Alright, there's the end of the boost back burn.

04:15Alright, there's the end of the boost back burn.

04:17We should be seeing the hot stage.

04:21So, the hot stage separates.

04:29It's going to make its way down.

04:31Also, splash down in the Gulf.

04:33In the meantime though, these six ship Raptors are going to continue firing for about five more minutes.

04:41Next up for the booster though, is going to be its landing burn.

04:49There's a cool tracking shot.

04:50We dump some of the prop out on our way back in.

04:57Alright, so for booster, this is one of the main things we're trying to get is going to be this landing burn.

05:03Oh, that's, so you can see the hot stage kind of making its way towards the very, the left side.

05:10So that's the bottom of the booster.

05:11It's about to pass right in front of where you can see some of that prop dump happening.

05:15They look like they're close together, but there's a good amount of distance between them.

05:20And the hot stage will go down and splash down in the Gulf while the booster comes back for its landing burn.

05:30Starship is on nominal trajectory.

05:32Alright, looking good on our trajectory, looking good on everything.

05:37Jake and Amanda, you guys with me down there?

05:39Yeah, definitely. The crowd is gathering over here in the office.

05:43You can definitely feel the energy in here.

05:45Great to see that booster is making its way down to the splashdown zone in the Gulf.

05:51Yeah, the shaking down here was absolutely nuts.

05:55The windows are still there, still intact.

05:57So that was pretty awesome.

05:59But yeah, booster's coming down.

06:00We're at about 30 kilometers.

06:01All right.

06:02Yeah.

06:03And as we approach that landing, just like tower catches, we will be doing a 13 engine landing

06:11burn to slow down.

06:12This time it will be in a V3 configuration.

06:14And as we're starting to get into the denser part of the atmosphere, the booster is using

06:21four hypersonic grid fins to guide itself through atmospheric entry towards its landing site.

06:26And we're just about 20 seconds away from landing burn start, where we'll first ignite the center

06:3313 engines, then bring that down to five to slow down the booster for landing.

06:37And finally, that will come down to three, and we'll cut all of them off while we're still

06:41about 200 meters in the air.

06:42So booster is going to see a bit of a harder thing.

06:43Booster landing burn start it.

06:44Booster landing burn shut down.

06:45And there we heard it.

06:46Booster landing burn shut down.

06:48We saw a 13 to 5 to 3 V3 demonstration.

06:49And into the water we go.

06:55Wow.

06:56That's awesome.

06:57Boom.

06:58Boom.

06:59Boom.

07:00Boom.

07:01Boom.

07:02Boom.

07:03Boom.

07:04Boom.

07:05Boom.

07:06Boom.

07:07Boom.

07:08Boom.

07:09Boom.

07:10Boom.

07:11Boom.

07:12Boom.

07:13Boom.

07:14Boom.

07:15Boom.

07:16Boom.

07:17Boom.

07:18That was absolutely awesome.

07:22If you can even hear us right now,

07:24congrats to the whole SpaceX team.

07:26So far, so good for today.

07:28That was incredible.

07:32All right, great stuff, guys.

07:35I'm jealous of the crowd.

07:36All right, back to ship.

07:37Ship's still making its way.

07:38We've got a little under two minutes left in this ascent burn,

07:42so we've got all six Raptor engines still firing.

07:48So the next major milestone we're going to be looking for is CECO.

07:52That's our second stage engine cutoff.

07:54That should be coming right at about 8 minutes and 58 seconds into flight,

08:00so we've got about a minute 20 still to go.

08:04Really cool to see Booster go through that landing burn.

08:09That was one of our really key demonstrations we wanted to try and do today

08:14is that's mimicking what we're going to be hopefully doing.

08:18Oh, we just got our sonic boom, sounds like, from the booster coming back.

08:25All right, less than a minute to go.

08:27So we are going to see the three RVACs, the vacuum-optimized engines,

08:32shut down first, and then we'll shut down those three center engines.

08:35So we should be a little under a minute until CECO.

08:38Just a reminder, this is putting us into a suborbital trajectory,

08:42so we're intentionally just going slow enough that we're not going to achieve full orbit.

08:47This puts us on a course where those engines shut off, and no matter what, we're coming back.

08:52Starship is in terminal guidance.

08:54In the Indian Ocean. All right, terminal guidance.

08:57So we should start seeing the shutdowns come up in just a couple seconds.

09:01Less than 30 seconds to go in this ship of Scentburn.

09:14All right, RVACs have shut off.

09:19Three more to go.

09:20Ship engine cut off.

09:27All right, all ship Raptors have shut down.

09:43Nominal orbital insertion.

09:45You just heard nominal orbital insertion.

09:49So we are on the path that we want it to be.

09:52So we've got a ship back in space.

09:54A whole lot planned for it.

09:56Lots more still to come.

09:58Great seeing Super Heavy make its way to the water.

10:00But I'm excited to see what ship can do in space.

10:03How's everybody doing down there?

10:04Yeah, if you could hear the crowd behind us this whole time.

10:14People are definitely happy with how the day's been panning out so far.

10:18Definitely exciting to see Starship safely in space.

10:21And super pumped to see all the team's hard work in action here today.

10:24Yeah, and we guaranteed it at the start of the show.

10:27But it has been an awesome day so far.

10:29It's crazy.

10:30All this has happened in just 10 minutes.

10:32All the objectives were made on the booster, including that V3-style landing burn.

10:36So now all eyes are on the ship as we get ready for our in-space objectives.

10:41But we've got a few minutes until that next milestone.

10:43So sit tight.

10:45Enjoy the views.

10:46Enjoy the space jams.

10:47We'll be back at T plus 16 minutes for payload deploy.

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