Small Space News Story Roundup 68

It's Thursday, October 9 as I type, and around the space community big, flashy, loud things are moving, especially from a couple of big stories we've talked about.  

Big One First: Starship Flight 11 Booster Rolls to the Pad

On Wednesday, Oct. 8, SpaceX announced they had rolled the (already flown and flight tested) SuperHeavy booster for the next flight test.  They posted photos on X showing the giant booster, posed for photographs along the way and then being placed on the launch pad. 

SpaceX rolls the Starship Flight 11 Super Heavy booster to the launch pad at its Starbase site in South Texas. Photo posted on X, Oct. 8, 2025. (Image credit: SpaceX)

As has been covered before the launch is currently scheduled for Monday, Oct. 13 at 7:15 PM EDT.  The plan for Flight Test 11 is similar to August's FT-10, which was very successful.  This booster is a flight-proven vehicle, having flown on FT-8 last March.  On that flight, it was captured by the tower "chopstick arms," which is not planned for this flight.  It will fall into the Gulf of America near the launch site in Boca Chica.  

This is also expected to be the last flight of a Version 2 Starship and a short description of the mission is to test the "corner cases" of the ship and booster like FT-10 did, but more aggressively. 

Meanwhile in Florida, Blue Origin rolls their next New Glenn to the pad

As mentioned yesterday, Blue Origin is preparing for the November launch of their second New Glenn rocket to orbit, this time lifting NASA's two ESCAPADE satellites to an escape trajectory to head to Mars.  That's right, this isn't a test flight for Blue Origin to learn more about their vehicle, it's for paying customers. 

The two ESCAPADE ("Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers") orbiters will be sent to the Red Planet, where they will study the Martian atmosphere and how it's affected by the solar wind and space weather. 

Blue Origin rolls the first stage of its powerful New Glenn rocket to the pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Oct. 8, 2025. (Image credit: Blue Origin)

Comparatively, Blue Origin's story is lower priority because their earliest launch date is November 9, while Starship test flight is this coming Monday, just a few days away.