SpaceX’s second-generation spacecraft takes off on a near-perfect test flight

In the final moments of Monday’s flight, the spacecraft flexed its flaps to perform a “dynamic maneuver” over the Indian Ocean, then flipped upright and fired its engines to slow the descent, simulating maneuvers the rocket will perform on future missions returning to the launch site. This will be one of the main goals of the next phase of the spacecraft testing campaign starting next year.

Patience on V3

It will likely be at least a few months before SpaceX is ready to launch its next Starship flight. Technicians at Starbase are assembling the next Super Heavy booster and the first Starship V3 vehicle. Once the rocket and vehicle are integrated, they are expected to undergo cooling and static fire tests before SpaceX moves forward with the launch.

“The focus now turns to the next generation of Starship and Super Heavy, with multiple vehicles currently in the active construction and test preparation phase,” SpaceX wrote on its website. “This next iteration will be used for Starship’s first orbital flights, operational payload missions, propellant transfer, and more as we iterate into a fully reusable, rapid vehicle with service to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond.”

Starship V3 will have larger fuel tanks to increase the rocket’s lift capacity, upgraded Raptor 3 engines, and an improved payload bay to support the launch of real Starlink satellites. SpaceX will also use this version of the rocket for orbital refueling experiments, a long-awaited milestone for the Starship program now planned for sometime next year. Orbital refueling is a critical enabler for future Starship flights beyond low Earth orbit and is essential for SpaceX to achieve Musk’s ambition of sending ships to Mars, a goal the company’s founder has long held dear.

It is also required for spacecraft flights to the Moon. NASA has signed contracts with SpaceX worth more than $4 billion to develop a derivative version of the humanized Starship vehicle to land astronauts on the moon as part of the agency’s Artemis program. The orbital refueling demonstration is a milestone in NASA’s lunar landing contract. Doing this as quickly as possible is Of vital importance to NASAwhich is seeing a pushback to the Artemis moon landing schedule, partly due to Starship delays.