The Starbase team is gearing up for a critical milestone: they plan to have the next Super Heavy Booster stacked in December 2025, aligning perfectly with the test campaign for the first Starship V3 vehicle and its support infrastructure. This stacking move puts the program on track for the highly anticipated twelfth flight test of Starship, currently targeted for the first quarter of 2026.
The late‑year stacking timeline is ambitious but strategic. By getting the booster in place in December, the design freeze, structural proving, and ground‑system integration can overlap into the early months of 2026, shortening the gap between build and flight. According to program analysis, it means the vehicle and ground systems can be readied in parallel, helping SpaceX stay on pace despite recent hardware setbacks.
Still, the return to stacking follows a major anomaly: one Super Heavy booster suffered a gas‑system pressure failure, underscoring the risk in scaling up to V3 hardware. The December stacking thus carries both opportunity and caution. The structure, propellant systems, and integration tower must all perform flawlessly to hit the Q1 launch window.
If all stays on schedule, the twelfth flight will mark another leap forward — transitioning from Block 2 hardware to the next‑gen Block 3 / V3 architecture. For observers, that means not just stacking a booster, but stacking momentum. Stay tuned as Starbase ramps toward yet another chapter in reusable heavy‑launch evolution.
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