According to SpaceX boss Elon Musk, the powerful Starship rocket could complete its twelfth test flight as early as March.
In a post on X on Monday, Musk shared a photo of the giant rocket on a previous flight with the comment “Starship launch in 6 weeks.”
The spacecraft, which consists of the upper stage spacecraft and the first stage Super Heavy booster, will lift off from Pad 2 of SpaceX’s Starbase facility in south Texas. It will be the first launch from the new pad, which is still under construction.
More importantly, the mission will be the first-ever launch of the third version of Starship.
When fully loaded, the new vehicle is slightly higher, namely from 123.3 meters to 124.4 meters.
The new version also has greater capacity compared to its predecessor, allowing for a higher payload, and comes with new docking adapters for in-orbit fuel transfer – a key upgrade for spacecraft flights to the Moon and beyond.
The spacecraft produces a whopping 17 million pounds of thrust upon launch, making it the most powerful rocket ever to fly. To put that into context, that’s about 10 times the launch thrust of their workhorse Falcon 9 rocket.
Its incredible power and spectacular takeoff and landing have sparked great interest in the rocket since its first flight in 2023. The vehicle could one day hurl the first humans towards Mars.
Before that, the spacecraft is expected to play a key role in the Artemis III mission, currently scheduled for 2027 at the earliest. The highly anticipated endeavor will see a modified NASA spacecraft land two NASA astronauts on the lunar surface, marking the first manned lunar landing since 1972.
But the spacecraft is still in the testing phase and has to overcome numerous hurdles before it can take on the complex lunar mission.
The 12th Starship flight, scheduled to launch in March, according to Musk, will be an important step as SpaceX works to prepare the rocket for show.
