Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
When we first watched Starship Flight 11 it just seemed like another smooth test that didn’t end in an explosion but the new footage SpaceX released shows there was far more happening than anyone thought. What looked like a routine flight actually contained several hidden tests.
At first glance the booster did what we have seen many times before. It separated cleanly from the upper stage after main engine cutoff and began its controlled fall back through the atmosphere. The giant stainless steel body of the Super Heavy slowly started to rotate and align itself for reentry, its four grid fins unfolding like mechanical wings. These fins the booster’s steering system during descent. They don’t provide lift like airplane wings, but instead use aerodynamic drag to guide the rocket through the air, allowing the onboard computers to make small adjustments hundreds of times per second.
In the new footage, you can actually see the glow building on the booster’s skin as it reenters the denser parts of the atmosphere. Tiny bursts of cold gas from the control thrusters help keep it stable as it falls from the edge of space. The fins constantly move back and forth, steering the 70-meter-tall rocket body toward the landing zone in the Gulf of Mexico. The precision is incredible considering the booster is still traveling faster than the speed of sound at this point.
The booster came back through the air moving at more than 1,400 kilometers per hour, a speed so high that even the smallest control mistake could send it spinning out of control. As it descended through the thicker layers of the atmosphere, the heat and stress on the structure increased dramatically. You could see the plasma glow forming around parts of the rocket, a sign of just how much friction it was experiencing. Then, at about four and a half kilometers above the ocean, all thirteen Raptor engines roared to life at once.
When we first watched Starship Flight 11 it just seemed like another smooth test that didn’t end in an explosion but the new footage SpaceX released shows there was far more happening than anyone thought. What looked like a routine flight actually contained several hidden tests.
At first glance the booster did what we have seen many times before. It separated cleanly from the upper stage after main engine cutoff and began its controlled fall back through the atmosphere. The giant stainless steel body of the Super Heavy slowly started to rotate and align itself for reentry, its four grid fins unfolding like mechanical wings. These fins the booster’s steering system during descent. They don’t provide lift like airplane wings, but instead use aerodynamic drag to guide the rocket through the air, allowing the onboard computers to make small adjustments hundreds of times per second.
In the new footage, you can actually see the glow building on the booster’s skin as it reenters the denser parts of the atmosphere. Tiny bursts of cold gas from the control thrusters help keep it stable as it falls from the edge of space. The fins constantly move back and forth, steering the 70-meter-tall rocket body toward the landing zone in the Gulf of Mexico. The precision is incredible considering the booster is still traveling faster than the speed of sound at this point.
The booster came back through the air moving at more than 1,400 kilometers per hour, a speed so high that even the smallest control mistake could send it spinning out of control. As it descended through the thicker layers of the atmosphere, the heat and stress on the structure increased dramatically. You could see the plasma glow forming around parts of the rocket, a sign of just how much friction it was experiencing. Then, at about four and a half kilometers above the ocean, all thirteen Raptor engines roared to life at once.
