Primary booster objective will be demonstrating a unique landing burn engine configuration planned to be used on the next generation Super Heavy.
Super Heavy will ignite 13 engines at the start of the landing burn and then transition to a new configuration with five engines running for the divert phase. Previously done with three engines, the planned baseline for V3 Super Heavy will use five engines during the section of the burn responsible for fine-tuning the booster’s path, adding additional redundancy for spontaneous engine shutdowns. The booster will then transition to its three center engines for the end of the landing burn, entering a full hover while still above the ocean surface, followed by shutdown and dropping into the Gulf.
Ship will deploy 8 Starlink simulators and perform an in-space Raptor relight.
For reentry, tiles have been removed from Starship to intentionally stress-test vulnerable areas across the vehicle. Several of the missing tiles are in areas where tiles are bonded to the vehicle and do not have a backup ablative layer.
To mimic the path a ship will take on future flights returning to Starbase, the final phase of Starship’s trajectory on Flight 11 includes a dynamic banking maneuver and will test subsonic guidance algorithms prior to a landing burn and splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

Link to Starship Dev thread

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[–] burble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 months ago

Wow, that was a really good "landing" considering all the missing tiles and the banking / cross-range maneuvering at the end. Block 2 had a rough start, but that's a good way to end it.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

T minus one hour.

Launch mount vent and tower vent.

Edit: SpaceX website countdown clock has entered a hold at T-1:00:02. Propellant load has not started yet.

Edit2: Countdown clock has resumed, new T-0 is 2025-10-13 23:23:00 UTC, 18:23 local.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Propellant loading is under way. Frost on ship and booster.

SpaceX hosted webcast is live. Amanda Lee (Build Reliability Engineer) Jake Berkowitz (Lead Propulsion Engineer), and Dan Huot (Communications) are hosting.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 months ago

Liftoff!

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago

SECO and nominal orbit insertion confirmed.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago

Ship door is open, Starlink simulator deployment is under way.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Ship is transonic.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago

Booster landing burn and splashdown.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago

Ship landing burn and splashdown confirmed!

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Huh, that's a different time than normal, isn't it? These aren't usually around midnight for me. Very inconsiderate to force me to wait till the next morning to watch, booo!

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago

Since Flight 6, they've been launching between 22:00 and midnight UTC, likely so they can get video data of ship reentry in daylight.

[–] few@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Is there a visualization anywhere of the maneuver that is intended to mimic the approach path to the launch site? Will it come in over Mexico and then do some kind of wiggle? What population centers do they need to avoid?

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Now that I'm watching the manoeuvre live, I think they want to be able to fly past the launch tower and approach it from the east.

[–] few@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Apart from the spectator value of mounting a camera on one of the Starlink simulators, how much value would such a camera have to SpaceX in being able to monitor the re-entry? How long before the simulator was too far away / too hot to be able to continue transmitting useful images?

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Well, for this flight, they've scheduled the in-space Raptor relight between payload deploy and reentry.

Even if they were to resequence this, I suspect that the differing mass-to-area ratios of the ship and the Starlink simulator would cause them to drift apart pretty quickly. It's also possible that the reentry plasma would preclude communication between the camera and the ship.

[–] few@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago

Ah yes, that would increase the separation quite quickly.

I guess they do the relight test after the simulator deploy because it is a higher risk activity - the pez dispenser is very unlikely to cause a RUD.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago

NSF stakeout stream is live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-H_0gow6Hg

Range safety helicopter has been spotted.

Tank farm venting is observed.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago

Police at the roadblock. Empty transport stand is moving from the launch site to the build site.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

NASASpaceflight launch coverage is live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bcpnn_PO-A

They are currently having a discussion panel with space journalists/writers Eric Berger, Christian Davenport, and Ashlee Vance.

The tank farm is spooling up.

Chopsticks have opened.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1977861745336356944

The Starship team is go for prop load

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago

Propellant loading is complete on ship and booster.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Banking manoeuvre has begun.

Ship has passed through max pressure and max heating.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

MECO, hotstaging, boostback burn, and hotstaging adapter separation.

[–] few@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

How will the transition from 5 to 3 engines on the Booster landing burn add additional redundancy? How is that different from going straight to 3 engines?

Previously the 3 engine landing burn was for about 16 seconds. If there was a 5 second burn with 5 engines then that would be followed by a 7 or 8 second burn with 3 engines, giving a total elapsed burn time of 13 seconds.

Is there a gap between the 5 engine burn and the 3 engine burn or will they just switch off two engines after 5 seconds. Does that mean that they can then choose which two to turn off and avoid the need to allow for the 0.2 seconds engine startup time that would be needed if there was a failure of one of the 3 engines. Is that the only benefit of a 5-3 landing burn?

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago

Does that mean that they can then choose which two to turn off

That would be my guess. Start up slightly more engines than you need, and then pick the "healthiest" engines to finish the landing.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago

"Ship is starting entry, good attitude."

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago

In-space Raptor relight and shutdown confirmed.

Nominal second orbital insertion.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago

Payload deployments complete, ship door has closed.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago

"Flaps have control of the vehicle."

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago

Starship is approaching entry interface. Plasma glow is visible on the livestream.