SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) - A test launch of SpaceX’s Starship lit up the skies along the Gulf Coast Monday night, giving beachgoers on the Suncoast a spectacular view.

The Starship-Super Heavy rocket launched from Starbase, Texas, on a suborbital flight at 7:15 p.m. EDT. It was the 11th flight of the integrated launch vehicle.

The primary test objective was scheduled to be demonstrating a unique landing burn engine configuration SpaceX plans to use on the next generation Super Heavy.

The main booster was on a trajectory to an offshore landing point in the Gulf and did not return to the launch site where it is designed to be “caught” by the launch tower.

The Starship upper stage was targeted to splash down in the Indian Ocean following “a dynamic banking maneuver” designed to “mimic the pa

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