SpaceX launches another Starship rocket to test reusable design

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FILE PHOTO: SpaceX logo is seen in this illustration taken, March 10, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

WASHINGTON - Elon Musks SpaceX launched its eleventh Starship rocket from Starbase, Texas on Monday, a test mission to demonstrate the giant vehicles reusable design for lofting satellites and eventually taking humans to the moon and Mars.

Starship, consisting of the Starship upper stage stacked atop its Super Heavy booster, launched around 7:20 p.m. ET from SpaceXs Starbase facilities. After sending the Starship stage to space, Super Heavy returned for a soft water landing in the Gulf of Mexico roughly 10 minutes after liftoff.

A mission in August ended a streak of testing failures earlier this year as SpaceX pushed to stress-test features for its total reusability. SpaceX, after Mondays flight, is hoping to start launching a more advanced Starship prototype equipped with features tailored for moon and Mars missions.

Weve done everything we can think of to make that next test flight, Flight 11, successful, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said at a conference in Paris last month. But, you know, you never know when youre going to get punched in the face, so well see.

SpaceX during the mission is aiming to deploy its second cluster of dummy Starlink satellites in space and see the ship reach the Indian Ocean after blazing back through Earths atmosphere, where a variety of experimental heat shield tiles on Starships exterior will face super-hot plasma. REUTERS