Starship V3 stacked as SpaceX races toward launch

SpaceX has stacked the Super Heavy booster and Ship upper stage for Starship V3 at its Starbase facility in South Texas, completing a full wet dress rehearsal and setting a launch window no earlier than 6:30 p.m. EDT on May 21. The flight—Starship’s 12th test

The tallest rocket ever built stood quietly on its launch pad at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in South Texas—until yesterday’s work made it unmistakably real. The two halves of Starship V3. the Super Heavy booster and the Ship upper stage. were stacked on May 19 at the newly built pad. bringing the system into position for its next mission.

SpaceX is now preparing to debut Version 3 of Starship, a vehicle scheduled to launch no earlier than 6:30 p.m. EDT (2230 GMT) on May 21. It will be the rocket’s 12th test flight.

The stack was not a one-off moment. It’s the second time the two stages have been mated in the last several days. SpaceX has been moving Ship to and from its Starbase hangar for extensive prelaunch checkouts and tests. while the Super Heavy booster has also been assessed in recent weeks. Those efforts include test firings of the booster’s 33 Raptor 3 engines.

Before the countdown, SpaceX pushed the vehicle through what it called a final wet dress rehearsal on May 20. The procedure involved fully fueling both stages and running through a simulated launch countdown up to the moments just before engine ignition.

SpaceX shared photos of the May 19 stack in a post on X and later posted about the wet dress rehearsal as well.

The flight itself is designed to end differently than many previous recovery-focused attempts. Starship Flight 12 will be suborbital, with soft landing splashdowns in the Gulf of Mexico and Indian Ocean for Ship and Super Heavy, respectively, rather than a return to Starbase for recovery and reuse.

The broader goal is still reusability. SpaceX has previously recovered Super Heavies using the launch tower’s “chopstick” arms to catch the booster in midair. It has not yet attempted a catch of the Ship upper stage. Still. depending on how the first V3 test flight goes. SpaceX could attempt such a recovery on the upcoming Flight 13 or 14.

SpaceX plans to stream Starship Flight 12 live on May 21, with streams also available on Space.com beginning at 5:45 p.m. EDT (2145).

Starship V3 is a major step from the vehicle’s earlier V2 and V1 designs. The new version includes key components aimed at maturing the system for operational missions—especially docking ports for in-space refueling. That capability will be needed on future flights when Starship pushes beyond low Earth orbit (LEO). including missions tied to NASA’s Artemis program.

NASA has contracted SpaceX to use Starship as one of the Artemis lunar landers, and the timeline is tightening. Artemis 3 is planned for late 2027. It will launch NASA’s Orion capsule with a crew of astronauts to rendezvous and dock with Starship in LEO to assess the spacecraft’s ability to link up in orbit. If that assessment succeeds. Starship would then be slated to deliver astronauts to the moon’s surface on Artemis 4. currently scheduled for 2028.

NASA is not relying on Starship alone. The agency has also contracted a lunar lander from Blue Origin. Their Blue Moon spacecraft is expected to fly on Artemis 3 for its own tests with Orion. NASA says it hopes to launch the mission using both landers. but it is willing to fly with just one if the other stalls in development.

The question now for this May 21 launch is straightforward even as the stakes run deeper: can the stacked. freshly fueled Starship V3 make it through its wet rehearsal and into a mission profile that still stops short of recovery—while positioning SpaceX for the next phase of both engineering and deadlines?.

SpaceX Starship V3 Starbase Super Heavy Ship wet dress rehearsal Raptor 3 Flight 12 Artemis 3 Artemis 4 Blue Origin Blue Moon NASA Orion