SpaceX eyes mid-October for Starship's 11th flight test

　　LOS ANGELES, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- SpaceX is targeting mid-October for the 11th flight test of its Starship rocket, the company announced on Monday.

　　The launch is scheduled for as early as Monday, Oct. 13, with a launch window opening at 6:15 p.m. Central Time (2315 GMT).

　　During the test, the booster will launch with 24 flight-proven Raptor engines to test a unique landing burn configuration planned to be used on future Super Heavy rockets. It will target an offshore landing point in the Gulf of Mexico rather than returning to the launch site for catch, according to SpaceX.

　　Starship's upper stage will pursue several in-space objectives, including deploying eight Starlink simulators that are similar in size to the company's next-generation Starlink satellites. The simulators will follow the same suborbital trajectory as Starship and are expected to burn up upon reentry.

　　The mission will also include a series of experiments and operational changes aimed at paving the way for future Starship flights to return the upper stage to the launch site. For this test, some heat-shield tiles have been deliberately removed to stress-test vulnerable areas of the vehicle during reentry.

　　To replicate the trajectory of future return missions to SpaceX's Starbase in the U.S. state of Texas, the final phase of the test will feature a dynamic banking maneuver and evaluate subsonic guidance algorithms before a landing burn and splashdown in the Indian Ocean. ■