Flight 12
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Mission details
12th test flight of the two-stage Starship launch vehicle. Maiden Flight of Starship V3. The flight test’s primary goal will be to demonstrate each of these new pieces in the flight environment for the first time, with each element of the Starship architecture featuring significant redesigns to enable full and rapid reuse that incorporate learnings from years of development and test. The Starship upper stage will target multiple in-space and reentry objectives, including a payload deployment of 20 Starlink simulators, similar in size to next-generation Starlink V3 satellites, and two specially modified Starlink satellites. The two modified satellites will test hardware planned for Starlink V3 and will attempt to scan Starship’s heat shield and transmit imagery down to operators to test methods of analyzing Starship’s heat shield readiness for return to launch site on future missions. Several tiles on Starship have been painted white to simulate missing tiles and serve as imaging targets in the test. The Starlink simulators will be on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship. A relight of a single Raptor engine while in space is also planned. For Starship entry, a single heat shield tile has been intentionally removed to measure the aerodynamic load differences on adjacent tiles when there is a tile missing. Finally, the ship will perform experimental actions tested on previous flight tests, including a maneuver to intentionally stress the structural limits of the vehicle’s rear flaps and a dynamic banking maneuver to mimic the trajectory that future missions returning to Starbase will fly.
Current status: The launch vehicle successfully inserted its payload(s) into the target orbit(s).
Mission-specific study diagram: Starship flights can emphasize stage separation, coast, re-entry and recovery rather than a conventional payload-only profile.
Launch time, window and countdown
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Rocket and launch site
Starship V3 is listed for this mission with SpaceX. The current launch record places the mission at Orbital Launch Pad 2 · SpaceX Starbase, TX, USA.
The second launch and landing pad of the full version of the combined SpaceX Starship and Superheavy booster. To be first used for launch in 2025 with version 3 of Starship and the Superheavy booster. The launch mount itself is named Orbital Launch Mount B.
Launch pads and ranges matter because azimuth restrictions, overflight safety, recovery zones and target inclination can constrain when and how a mission flies. Browse the Rocket Launch Sites page to compare other active locations represented in the upcoming schedule.
Related programme
The SpaceX Starship is a fully reusable super heavy-lift launch vehicle under development by SpaceX since 2012, as a self-funded private spaceflight project. The second stage of the Starship — is designed as a long-duration cargo and passenger-carrying spacecraft. It is expected to be initially used without any booster stage at all, as part of an extensive development program to prove out launch-and-landing and iterate on a variety of design details, particularly with respect to the vehicle's atmospheric reentry.
Official / programme information ↗After liftoff: continue tracking
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Sources and schedule caveats
Launch schedule data and associated imagery on this page come from Launch Library 2 / The Space Devs and are cached server-side by SpaceTracker.live. Schedule records can change as providers update readiness, weather, range coordination or mission constraints.