Elon Musk’s astronautics, commercial spaceflight, and satellite company SpaceX is preparing for Starship’s 11th flight test at Starbase, Texas.
The fast-track preparations are a sign of confidence as SpaceX conducted a successful Flight 10 Starship launch and landing test less than two weeks ago.
Yesterday (Sunday, September 07), SpaceX conducted a static fire test on Super Heavy Booster 15-2. The ‘2’ in the name of this specific Super Heavy prototype is because it’s getting reused after a successful catch by the launch tower in the Flight 8 test earlier this year.
“Static fire complete for the Super Heavy booster preparing for Starship’s eleventh flight test,” the official SpaceX announcement stated. SpaceX shared stunning footage and images of the Flight 11 booster’s static fire test on X (watch below).
Super Heavy Booster 15-2 (Starship Flight 11) was getting tweaked in Megabay 1 at Starbase before SpaceX transported it to the launch site. It was mounted on the orbital launch mount (OLM) Pad A for a static fire test.
These pre-flight static fire tests allow SpaceX teams to evaluate the integrity of the upper and lower stages of the Starship and the Raptor engines.
The upper stage prototype for the Flight 11 launch test (IFT-11) is Starship 38 (Ship 38). Both Ship 38 and Booster 15-2 form the Flight 11 Starship prototype test vehicle.
Ship 38 has already gone through two cryogenic pressure proof tests on 30th July 2025. As Booster 15-2 has gone through the static fire test, the next major Flight 11 pre-flight test should be the Ship 38 static fire.
SpaceX has started major tests in preparation for the Flight 11 Starship launch. However, a fixed date for this launch test is not announced yet.
If SpaceX conducts the upper-stage Starship 38 static fire test in the next couple of weeks, we might witness Flight 11 Starship launch as soon as late September or early October (pending FAA approval).
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly stated that reusability is the key to reducing the cost of Starship launches. This will, in turn, bring down the cost of making life multi-planetary — the ultimate goal of Elon Musk’s Starship program.
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