Starship's 11th test flight. Image: @SpaceX via X.com The company’s focus will now move on to the next generation of Starship and the Super Heavy booster as SpaceX prepares for its first orbital flights. SpaceX’s Starship – the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built – had a successful hour-long test flight yesterday (13 October). This marks its second successful test in a row this year after deploying the first round of its mock satellites into space earlier this August. Yesterday marked its 11th test flight, and the final flight for its second-generation Starship spacecraft and the first-generation Super Heavy rocket booster. “Every major objective of the flight test was achieved, providing valuable data as we prepare the next generation of Starship and Super Heavy,” SpaceX said. As usual, the test began with the Super Heavy booster igniting all 33 of its Raptor engines for ascent. Once the spacecraft successfully ascended into space, the Super Heavy booster completed its boostback burn and returned to Earth to a pre-planned splashdown zone off the coast of Texas. The Super Heavy booster successfully executed a “unique” landing burn, SpaceX said, which it hopes to use it on its next-generation booster. Meanwhile, the Starship rocket successfully deployed eight Starlink mock satellites in space. It then re-entered Earth’s atmosphere, performing a banking manoeuvre that showcased the trajectory that future SpaceX missions returning to Starbase will use. The rocket guided itself to its pre-planned splashdown zone in the Indian Ocean. The focus now moves on to the next generation of the Starship rocket and the Super Heavy booster as SpaceX prepares for its first orbital flights and operational payload missions, the company said. The two victorious flight tests follow three other tests this year, with all ending abruptly and sometimes dramatically. In its seventh test this January, the Starship spacecraft was destroyed, which was followed by an eighth, which also exploded, and a ninth test, where Starship lost contact with its team, breaking apart over the Indian Ocean while re-entering the atmosphere. The ultimate goal of SpaceX’s Starship project is to develop the world’s first fully reusable launch vehicle, with an even bigger ambition of building a system that can give humans the means to relocate to Mars. Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.