Starship on the launchpad at SpaceX’s Starbase in TexasSpaceX
SpaceX will fly an extensively upgraded Starship next week that will – if it launches successfully – break records as the tallest and most powerful rocket in history. The flight will be watched keenly at NASA, as the craft is vital to its plans to put humans back on the moon in 2028.
Starship is made up of two parts: an upper stage, confusingly also called Starship, and a lower stage called Super Heavy. Since the last Starship test in October last year, SpaceX has been making extensive revisions to both stages.
The twelfth test flight, which is expected to launch as soon as 19 May, will involve new version 3 models of both craft. Powering each stage will be version 3 Raptor engines, which have seen limited testing on previous flights, and the launch will take place from a newly designed pad at the company’s Starbase site in Texas, meaning that the stakes for the test are particularly high.
On Super Heavy 3, the number of grid fins, intended to steer it back through the atmosphere to a safe landing, has been reduced from four to three but their size is expanded by 50 per cent. Starship 3 has a new, larger propellant tank, equipment for in-orbit refuelling and improved heat-resistant tiles for atmospheric re-entry.
