SpaceX to launch an even bigger Starship prototype
SpaceX is set to launch a new prototype of its Starship megarocket on Thursday in a key test flight. — the one that could bring astronauts back to the moon.
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The test will be Starship’s 12th outing but the first launch of the new third-generation Starship, dubbed V3, which is larger, more powerful and a step closer to fully reusable use.
The rocket is expected to lift off from a new launch pad at SpaceX’s Starbase facility on the southern tip of Texas during a launch window that opens at 6:30 p.m. ET.
Thursday’s flight will be closely watched as NASA hopes to use Starship to land its astronauts on the lunar surface. As part of NASA’s Artemis program, SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin are building lunar landers that NASA could use for a planned moon landing in 2028. The goal is to test one or both new vehicles in low Earth orbit as part of the Artemis III mission late next year.
Starship’s last test flight took place seven months ago. Since then, the rocket’s booster, known as Super Heavy, and its upper stage, called Ship, have undergone significant redesigns.
Starship V3 stands 408 feet tall fully stacked, a few feet taller than its predecessor. SpaceX also added new Raptor 3 engines on Super Heavy and Ship. Together, they will be able to generate approximately 18 million pounds of thrust.
Other improvements included reducing the number of “grid discoveries” on the booster, which are features at the top that help guide the rocket’s first stage back to Earth, and increasing the volume of the Starship’s propellant tank.
“Together, these new elements are designed to enable a step change in spacecraft capabilities and aim to unlock critical vehicle functions, including complete and rapid reuse, transfer of propellant into space, deployment of Starlink satellites and orbital data centers, and the ability to send people and cargo to the Moon and Mars,” SpaceX said on its website.
During Thursday’s suborbital test flight, Starship will attempt to deploy 22 fake Starlink satellites. SpaceX will also attempt to reignite one of the upper stage’s six Raptor engines in space, an important capability for deorbit burns when the vehicle eventually returns to Earth.
The test flight is expected to last approximately 65 minutes. Like previous outings, the upper stage should land in the Indian Ocean at the end of the mission. SpaceX plans to eventually make the ship reusable and “capture” the spacecraft with mechanical arms on the launch tower at its South Texas facility.
SpaceX demonstrated similar capture maneuvers with Starship’s Super Heavy booster during previous test flights. This time, the booster is expected to land off the Gulf of Mexico and don’t try to return to the Texas launch site to catch a catch, according to SpaceX.
SpaceX faces a tight timeline for Starship development. The rocket, which made its first flight in 2023, suffered a series of failures last year, including an uncontrolled reentry into Earth’s atmosphere and two mid-flight explosions as the upper stage vehicles accelerated into space. SpaceX hopes Starship will be ready for next year’s Artemis III mission, which requires the rocket’s upper stage to meet NASA’s Orion capsule — the vehicle that carried the Artemis II astronauts around the moon last month — in orbit.
If all goes well, SpaceX will then work to obtain Starship certification to transport NASA astronauts to the Moon in 2028.
