SpaceX targets – SpaceX plans its Starship 12th flight test on Thursday, May 21, opening a 90-minute launch window at 6:30 p.m. ET from Starbase in Texas after the company twice pushed the originally targeted May 19 liftoff by 24 hours.
For nearly seven months, Starship has sat on the clock. Now SpaceX is moving again, with a 90-minute window set to begin in the evening at Starbase in South Texas—setting up another high-stakes test of the rocket that’s chasing orbit, refueling, and the next era of deep-space ambition.
SpaceX is targeting flight 12 on Thursday, May 21, the company announced. The launch window is scheduled to open at 6:30 p.m. ET at Starbase, SpaceX’s company town and headquarters near the U.S.-Mexico border.
The timing comes after the company delayed the launch twice by 24 hours. SpaceX originally indicated it was working toward a May 19 launch for the world’s largest rocket, but no reasons were given for either delay.
The streaming details are already in place. The launch will be available to stream on SpaceX’s website and its new X TV mobile app beginning about 45 minutes before liftoff. Updates will also be posted on social media site X. SpaceX cautioned that, like all developmental testing, the schedule is dynamic and could change.
Behind the livestream and the countdown is a bigger question: whether Version 3 of Starship can do what the program increasingly needs it to do.
SpaceX describes the prototype—known as Version 3—as a major step forward, not just because it’s bigger and more powerful than previous builds, but because it is intended to be the Starship model capable of traveling to distant destinations and refueling in orbit.
If that goal holds, the payoff would reach far beyond SpaceX’s own hardware. A lunar lander configuration of Starship is expected to be critical to NASA’s Artemis program. which aims to return astronauts to the moon. Elon Musk has also spoken repeatedly about sending humans aboard Starship to colonize Mars.
Even closer to Earth, Starship is designed to haul larger versions of SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites and other payloads to orbit.
Starship itself is already positioned as the most ambitious rocket SpaceX has built. Standing at more than 400 feet tall when fully stacked, the company is developing it as a fully reusable transportation system, meaning both the rocket and the spacecraft can return for additional missions.
For flight 12, the hardware is laid out clearly. The next-generation Starship is set to be the largest version SpaceX has ever built, at 407 feet tall. SpaceX is aiming for this prototype—Version 3 (V3)—to reach orbit and demonstrate midflight refueling capability.
The fully integrated spacecraft pairs two main pieces: a 236-foot-tall lower-stage booster called Super Heavy and a 171-foot-tall upper stage simply named Starship. At liftoff. Super Heavy is powered by 33 of SpaceX’s Raptor-class engines. providing the initial thrust burst while the vehicle performs the mission in orbit after separation.
SpaceX says the flight test’s main objective is straightforward. The company is testing both new pieces of hardware “in the flight environment for the first time,” using flight 12 to validate what the rocket and its systems do once they are actually in motion.
Seven months after its last launch in October—when SpaceX tested the world’s largest rocket during an earlier Starship flight—teams are now working toward Thursday’s opening window. Whether it stays on that schedule is the obvious uncertainty. but SpaceX has made the stakes plain: the next prototype is being built for orbit and refueling. capabilities that would widen the road to the moon. Mars. and larger missions in between.
SpaceX Starship Starbase Artemis NASA Starlink Elon Musk launch window flight 12 Version 3 Raptor engines X TV