Starship 3’s – SpaceX’s extensively upgraded Starship 3 and Super Heavy 3 are set for a next-week launch at Texas’s Starbase, with new engines, major hardware changes, and record-breaking height and thrust under NASA’s Artemis watch—key to a human return to the Moon targeted
A new Starship sits on the launchpad at SpaceX’s Starbase in Texas, and next week it will be asked to do more than break records. The flight is expected to decide whether an upgraded version of the company’s vehicle can deliver what NASA will need for Artemis-era lunar landings.
The twelfth test flight—expected to launch as soon as 19 May—will fly version 3 models of both Starship and its lower stage. Super Heavy.. SpaceX has made extensive revisions to both stages since its last Starship test in October last year. and this time power will come from version 3 Raptor engines.. Limited testing of those engines on previous flights has kept attention tightly focused on whether the system can perform at the level required for what SpaceX says will ultimately support missions to the Moon and beyond.
NASA is watching closely because Starship is vital to its plans to put humans back on the moon in 2028.. Starship consists of two parts: an upper stage also called Starship, and a lower stage called Super Heavy.. The new configuration is being positioned as a step toward the Human Lander System (HLS) that SpaceX intends to land on the lunar surface.
The rocket itself will be larger than what has come before.. At launch, Starship 3 is expected to reach 124 metres—about 1 metre taller than version 2.. Its height also surpasses the 98-metre-tall Space Launch System (SLS) currently used by NASA and exceeds the 111-metre-tall Saturn V that sent astronauts to the moon in the 1960s and 70s.
Power is a central part of the pitch. Starship 3 is listed as delivering 75,000 kilonewtons of thrust—almost twice the 39,000 kilonewtons of SLS—making it the most powerful rocket ever launched, if the test goes as planned.
Alongside the scale, hardware changes aim to refine survivability during the flight.. On Super Heavy 3. the number of grid fins used to steer the booster back through the atmosphere and toward a safe landing has been reduced from four to three.. The change is paired with a bigger footprint: the remaining fins are expanded by 50 per cent.. The upper stage also brings new elements. including a larger propellant tank. equipment for in-orbit refuelling. and improved heat-resistant tiles designed for atmospheric re-entry.
One researcher has tried to put the engine power into everyday terms. Alistair John at the University of Sheffield, UK, has calculated that at peak output the power from all engines on the full Starship stack is larger than the electricity generated by all of Germany. “It’s massive,” says John.
NASA’s lunar timetable makes the test feel urgent.. SpaceX is one of two commercial lander providers selected for Artemis. alongside a lander design backed by Jeff Bezos and developed by Blue Origin.. After Artemis I in 2022 flew uncrewed around the Moon. Artemis II earlier this year carried four astronauts around it. further from Earth than any human has travelled before.
A recently released NASA document says Artemis III will launch crew in an Orion spacecraft atop the SLS rocket into low Earth orbit.. It will then rendezvous with “one or both commercial lunar landers provided by SpaceX and Blue Origin.” That kind of manoeuvre is described as necessary to get crew and fuel aboard a lander ahead of landing on the moon’s surface.. Artemis IV is aimed at doing this as early as 2028.
SpaceX’s approach to getting there has leaned on a “fail-fast, learn-fast” philosophy. Out of the 11 previous test flights, six have succeeded and five have failed. SpaceX and NASA did not respond to a request for comment.
Still, some experts say the latest hardware push fits the direction of the program.. Peter Shaw at Kingston University London believes SpaceX is on track for Artemis despite past failures.. “Rocket science is difficult.. It’s challenging.. It’s complex,” says Shaw.. “Can they do it?. Yes.. Can they do it within the timeline?. There’s a lot to be quietly confident about.. Even if you have another failure or two. or five… they’ll learn from it. they’ll iterate it and they’ll put a new system together.”
For John, the upcoming Starship test is also about production reality—not just experimentation.. He says the version 3 flight is important to verify the design that will underpin the HLS.. HLS will require significant alterations. including different engines designed to touch down under the Moon’s lower gravity. and no heat shield because it will never have to withstand re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere.. “It’s in a way small. incremental improvements. but then also it’s by far the most significant version: this version 3 is what they need for the Artemis programme.. The other ones have been prototypes,” John says.. “Version 3 is really the first test of the production model.. Now it’s just making it reliable.”
That reliability push is why the launch location matters too. The test will take place from a newly designed pad at SpaceX’s Starbase site in Texas, raising the stakes for a flight that could help shape whether the roadmap to humans on the Moon stays on course.
SpaceX Starship 3 Super Heavy 3 Raptor engines Artemis NASA moon landing Human Lander System Starbase Texas record launch