WASHINGTON — SpaceX successfully completed the final flight of version 2 of Starship on Oct. 13, performing a series of in-flight tests as the company prepares to begin launching an upgraded version of the reusable rocket.

Starship lifted off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in South Texas at 7:23 p.m. Eastern and ascended on its planned suborbital trajectory. The Super Heavy booster, which previously flew on Flight 8 in March, tested an alternate engine configuration after stage separation, with five Raptor engines rather than three burning for one of the final phases. The booster made a soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico offshore from Starbase as planned.

Starship, flying on a suborbital trajectory similar to previous missions, deployed eight Starlink mass simulators while in space.

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