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SpaceX has formally retired Version 2 of Starship after its most up-to-date flight take a look at Monday, Oct 13, from Texas. Now? Get prepared for Version 3.
SpaceX’s subsequent model of Starship, the world’s largest rocket, might be even larger and extra superior than any iteration of the spacecraft that has already launched 11 instances from Texas.
At least, that is in line with guarantees and visions that SpaceX billionaire founder Elon Musk and different firm officers have said earlier than retiring the car’s second-ever design.
Starship’s Version 2 managed to finish its comeback story throughout its remaining take a look at flight from SpaceX’s Starbase headquarters close to the U.S-Mexico border. The spacecraft’s fifth take a look at of the 12 months was its second profitable in a row following a string of three explosive failures earlier in 2025.
Now? Get prepared for Version 3.
SpaceX teased the next-generation car that might attain the moon and Mars throughout its reside webcast of a Starship mission referred to as flight 11, which received off the bottom Monday, Oct. 13.
Here’s everything to know about the V3 Starship, SpaceX’s next-generation iteration of the megarocket.
What is Starship? How massive is megarocket?
Starship is thought to be the world’s largest and strongest launch car ever developed, a document beforehand held by NASA’s retired 363-foot-tall Saturn V that powered the long-lasting Apollo lunar program.
The second design of Starship, referred to as Version 2, stands at 403 feet tall when fully stacked. The absolutely built-in launch system is composed of a 232-foot Super Heavy rocket and the 171-foot higher stage Starship, the spacecraft the place crew and cargo would trip.
SpaceX is creating Starship to be a completely reusable transportation system, that means the rocket and car can return to the bottom for extra missions.
In the years forward, Starship is set to serve a pivotal position in U.S. spaceflight.
Starship is the centerpiece of Musk’s imaginative and prescient of sending the primary people to Mars, with plans for the primary uncrewed Starship to move to the Red Planet as early as 2026.
A configuration of the car can be essential in NASA’s plans to return astronauts to the moon’s floor. The U.S. area company has designs on utilizing Starship to ferry Artemis III astronauts from an Orion capsule in orbit to the lunar floor as early as 2027.
SpaceX builds a number of V3 Starship automobiles, Super Heavy boosters
The subsequent iteration of Starship spacecraft, already underneath manufacturing in Texas, could also be even larger.
Musk, in delivering public updates in May in entrance of workers at Starbase – SpaceX’s headquarters and company town in South Texas – indicated that Version 3 could possibly be round 408 toes tall when absolutely stacked.
And that is not all. During SpaceX’s reside webcast of flight 11, Dan Huot, SpaceX’s communications supervisor, briefly described some “really significant changes” coming for Version 3 of Starship.
That consists of an overhaul underneath the hood to Starship’s higher stage, which in any other case bears an identical smooth aesthetic to what has already flown. Super Heavy can be getting a redesign, together with a brand new gas switch tube that channel fuels to its engines, Huot mentioned.
SpaceX has beforehand unveiled in a post on X that the following Super Heavy booster will function three grid fins to assist it land as a substitute of 4, which the corporate mentioned will enhance “vehicle control while enabling the booster to descend at higher angles of attack.” The fins are 50% bigger and “higher strength” than earlier variations, in line with SpaceX.
“This is building on everything we’ve learned from all these flight tests to make a vehicle that we’re looking to mass produce,” Huot mentioned in the course of the livestream.
Starship Version 3 could possibly be the one to achieve orbit, refuel midflight
SpaceX said on its website that the following era Starship could possibly be the primary to achieve orbit.
So far throughout 11 checks, Starship has flown at a a lot decrease subortibal trajectory past Earth’s ambiance.
Future iterations of Starship can even must display the power for the higher stage to refuel in orbit, which is obligatory for it to achieve distant locations. The course of is a posh one requiring two Starships outfitted with docking adapters to satisfy up in orbit to switch a whole lot of tons of super-cooled propellant, in line with SpaceX.
Additionally, SpaceX intends for Starship Version 3 to be the one with an higher stage able to returning and touchdown on the launch website.
If that sounds acquainted, it is as a result of SpaceX has already confirmed throughout three checks that it is able to catching a returning Super Heavy booster on the firm’s colossal “mechazilla” tower outfitted with large robotic arms – nicknamed “chopsticks.”
In reality, the earlier two Starship launches have examined mid-flight higher stage maneuvers obligatory to tug off the feat.
Next-gen Starship will launch larger Starlink satellites
In the previous two Starship flight checks, SpaceX has succeeded in having the car deploy eight mock Starlink satellites above Earth’s ambiance, the place they ultimately burned up.
For years, SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9, a two-stage 230-foot rocket, has been the only real rocket capable of launching and deploying Starlink satellites right into a rapdily rising constellation important to the corporate’s profitable web enterprise.
Now, SpaceX says Version 3 of Starship might be essential in launching heavier Starlink satellites that wil increase connectivity to its prospects.
When is the following Starship launch date? What to find out about flight 12
Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX president and COO, mentioned at a convention in Paris final month that she anticipated the following iteration of Starship to fly by 12 months’s finish or early subsequent 12 months, Reuters reported.
SpaceX has additionally indicated its need to launch Starship from Florida probably earlier than the tip of 2025, however has not supplied an replace on that plan since March.
While no official goal launch date has been set for the Sunshine State, plans to increase Starship operations to Florida have continued. SpaceX is within the strategy of getting approval for Starship launches from each the Kennedy Space Center, the place it’s creating extra infrastructure, in addition to the Cape Canaveral Space Force Base.
Contributing: Reuters
Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at [email protected]
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