Progress toward the next major Starship milestone continued quietly during the holiday period, as SpaceX completed a key assembly step for its upcoming test flight.
On December 24, SpaceX shared an image on X showing the Super Heavy booster assigned to Starship Flight 12 standing inside a high bay at the company’s Starbase facility in South Texas. The caption simply read, “Stacking complete.”
While no official launch date has been announced, SpaceX has indicated that liftoff of Flight 12 is expected in the first quarter of this year. The timeline reflects a slight delay after the Super Heavy booster originally planned for the mission suffered structural damage during testing in late November, forcing the company to prepare a replacement vehicle.
Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, measuring over 400 feet, or 122 meters, when fully stacked. The fully reusable system consists of 2 stages: the Super Heavy booster and a 171-foot-tall, or 52-meter, upper stage known as Starship, often referred to as Ship.
The megarocket flew 5 times last year. The first 3 suborbital test flights encountered technical issues, but the final 2 launches, conducted in August and October, were completed exactly as planned. Flight 12 aims to build on that momentum.
The upcoming mission will also introduce Starship “Version 3.” This updated design is slightly taller than earlier variants and will be the first to use SpaceX’s new Raptor 3 engine. According to the company, Version 3 represents the first configuration of Starship capable of flying to Mars.
That ambition may not be far off. Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, has said he hopes to launch a few uncrewed Starships toward Mars during the next planetary alignment window, which opens in the final months of this year. Earth and Mars align for efficient interplanetary travel once every 26 months.
Before that can happen, Starship still faces major technical hurdles. The vehicle has yet to reach Earth orbit and must demonstrate critical capabilities such as in-space refueling.
Flight 12 is expected to play an important role in proving whether SpaceX’s most ambitious rocket is ready for the next phase of its development.
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