The delayed first take a look at of SpaceX’s upgraded Starship rocket is now slated for mid-March, in response to a post from CEO Elon Musk on his social media website X.
This third model of Starship, or V3, is bigger and extra highly effective. Crucially, the corporate plans to make use of Starship V3 to launch its next-generation Starlink satellites, which can be able to sooner knowledge speeds however weigh extra and are bigger. It’s additionally the primary model of the rocket that’s meant to dock with different Starships in Earth orbit, a functionality the corporate wants as a way to attain the moon or Mars.
This all comes as SpaceX is racing toward an IPO later this year, and beneath strain from the Trump administration to return U.S. astronauts to the floor of the moon earlier than the tip of his second time period. Starship, probably the most highly effective rocket ever developed, is presently a key a part of NASA’s mission to meet that purpose.
SpaceX was making progress towards a launch of Starship V3 in late 2025. However in November, the booster stage suffered an explosion throughout testing that blew out an entire side of the steel rocket. The corporate stated it was performing “fuel system strain testing” when the explosion occurred, however has but to supply a extra detailed breakdown of what went mistaken.
The corporate has been hoping to maneuver on from the second model of Starship, which was a mixed bag. It was in a position to efficiently attain orbit with Starship V2, deploy dummy variations of the next-generation Starlink satellites, and catch a number of booster phases after they returned to the launchpad.
However Starship V2 additionally suffered a lot of explosions and setbacks of its personal. A few of these got here on account of SpaceX’s developmental method, which entails pushing the take a look at automobiles to — or previous — their restrict after which iterating based mostly on what the corporate learns. Others have been extra sudden, like when one of many Starship automobiles that sits atop the booster stage erupted in an enormous fireball throughout ground testing last June.
SpaceX has come to dominate the worldwide launch market during the last decade, and it’s counting on Starship to take care of that dominance. However competitors is creeping in on the edges. Jeff Bezos’ house firm Blue Origin launched its first mega-rocket, referred to as New Glenn, for the primary time in January 2025 and again in November. The corporate launched its inaugural business payload for NASA on that second flight and likewise accomplished the primary touchdown of its booster stage.
Blue Origin is planning a 3rd launch of New Glenn in late February and hopes to ship its personal lunar lander to the moon someday after that. Whereas New Glenn is smaller than Starship, Blue Origin revealed late final 12 months that it is developing a larger version of the car that extra instantly competes with SpaceX’s super-heavy rocket.
Trending Merchandise
