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SpaceX moves a Starship greater stage to the launch pad as portion of preparations for the megarocket’s upcoming 11th test flight. SpaceX posted this photo on X on Sept. 17, 2025.
(Image credit: SpaceX)
SpaceX has moved its latest Starship spacecraft to the launch pad for testing before the megarocket’s upcoming 11th test flight.
The corporate documented the milestone today (Sept. 17) by assignment of X, in a publish that shared three photos of the intellectual silver Starship greater stage.
In a form of photography, the 171-foot-big (52-meter-big) spacecraft — identified as Starship, or handsome “Ship” — is rolling down a facet twin carriageway at SpaceX‘s Starbase region in South Texas at nighttime. Within the opposite two, Ship is at the pad, nestled in the take of the launch tower’s “chopstick” fingers.
Ship on the transfer toward the pad at Starbase. (Image credit: SpaceX)
The seemingly next steps are pressurization and engine exams, which is able to make certain that Ship is ready to waft. The same prep work can even be done with Colossal Heavy, the large booster that makes up the bottom half of of the totally reusable, stainless-steel Starship.
The upcoming test flight, whose target date has now not yet been announced, would possibly be the 11th for Starship.
Flight 10, which launched on Aug. 26, became a total success, in accordance to SpaceX; each Colossal Heavy and Ship hit their splashdown targets (Colossal Heavy in the Gulf of Mexico and Ship in the Indian Ocean), and the greater stage deployed eight dummy versions of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites — a predominant for a Starship flight.
It became a welcome bounceback for SpaceX, which had misplaced Ship prematurely on the old three test launches.
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Ship on the pad at Starbase, on South Texas’ Gulf cruise. (Image credit: SpaceX)
Flight 11 would possibly be the leisure mission of Starship Version 2, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has said. The corporate will then shift to testing Version 3 of the automobile, which is able to stand about 408 feet (124.4 meters) big — roughly 10 feet (3 m) taller than Version 2.
If Version 3 testing and construction lag successfully, a tiny, uncrewed immediate of these vehicles would possibly presumably maybe presumably launch toward Mars as early as next year, in accordance to Musk. That is seemingly to be a gigantic step toward achieving his, and SpaceX’s, chief prolonged-time interval plan — serving to humanity establish the Red Planet.
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Michael Wall is a Senior Home Creator with Home.com and joined the team in 2010. He basically covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military home, however has been identified to dabble in the home art beat. His book about the search for alien existence, “Out There,” became revealed on Nov. 13, 2018. Before turning into a science creator, Michael worked as a herpetologist and plants and fauna biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor’s diploma from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificates in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To uncover what his most up-to-date mission is, it is seemingly you’ll presumably maybe come up with the chance to practice Michael on Twitter.
