WASHINGTON — As SpaceX prepares for its next Starship test flight, the company’s prospectus underlines how critical that vehicle is to its ambitions.
SpaceX confirmed late May 20 plans to attempt a launch of Starship on its 12th integrated test flight May 21 from Starbase, Texas. A 90-minute launch window for the suborbital mission opens at 6:30 p.m. Eastern, with the company reporting a 55% chance of acceptable weather.
This will be the first flight of version 3 of Starship and its Super Heavy booster, with a wide range of design changes to improve performance. This is the version of the vehicle that SpaceX plans to use for orbital launches as soon as later this year, carrying Starlink satellites, as well as for its Human Landing System lunar lander for NASA.
SpaceX has spent more than $15 billion on the Starship program, the company revealed in a May 20 prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission as part of plans to go public. That includes $3 billion in 2025 and nearly $900 million in the first quarter of 2026.
The company believes that, with version 3 of the vehicle, it is finally ready to begin orbital missions. “We expect Starship to commence payload delivery to orbit in the second half of 2026,” the company stated in the filing.
