NEWS — Starship RSS

SpaceX Booster 19 prelaunch testing is underway as SpaceX prepares its next Block 3 Super Heavy booster for a potential flight in early to mid-March 2026. Booster 19 will support the debut of the Starship Version 3 architecture, featuring new Raptor 3 engines and design improvements. Prelaunch testing — including cryogenic measurements and static firings — is crucial for validating performance ahead of a major test flight, likely part of the Starship Flight 12 campaign.

In 2025 SpaceX executed 165 Falcon rocket launches, a new annual record, and conducted five Starship flight tests, underscoring the company’s rapid operational cadence and commitment to advancing human space exploration. Falcon 9’s ongoing reuse and reliability enabled frequent orbital missions that supported Starlink constellation deployment and diverse commercial and government payloads, while Starship tests progressed toward the goal of interplanetary travel. These achievements highlight SpaceX’s pivotal role in expanding space infrastructure and edging closer to its vision of making life multiplanetary.

SpaceX’s mission, as articulated by Elon Musk, centers on expanding human consciousness into space to better understand the universe. This vision has remained consistent since the early days of Falcon 1, with launch vehicle concepts like Falcon X and Falcon XX foreshadowing today’s Starship program. Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy served as critical stepping stones, while Starship represents SpaceX’s long-term commitment to Mars, deep-space exploration, and civilization-scale progress beyond Earth.

We’ve received approval to develop Space Launch Complex-37 (SLC-37) for Starship operations at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Construction has started. With three launch pads in Florida, Starship will be ready to support America’s national security and Artemis goals as the world’s premiere spaceport continues to evolve to enable airport-like operations. We’d like to thank the Department of the Air Force ( @usairforce ), 45th Space Force ( @SLDelta45 ), and U.S. Fish and Wildlife ( @USFWS ) for their effort on the environmental review

The Starbase team plans to have the next Super Heavy booster stacked in December, which puts it on pace with the test schedule planned for the first Starship V3 vehicle and associated ground systems. Starship’s twelfth flight test remains targeted for the first quarter of 2026.