A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is displayed outdoors a Area Exploration Applied sciences Corp. facility in Hawthorne, California, on March 26, 2026.
Patrick T. Fallon | Afp | Getty Photographs
SpaceX is readying for the twelfth check flight of its large Starship rocket on Thursday, a landmark launch forward of the corporate’s IPO that is anticipated subsequent month.
The launch will symbolize the debut of Starship V3, which “is designed to ship 100 metric tons to Earth’s orbit in a totally reusable configuration whereas enabling speedy turnaround instances akin to industrial aviation,” SpaceX mentioned in its IPO prospectus on Wednesday.
A 90-minute launch window is ready to open at 6:30 p.m. ET, and the occasion will be seen by webcast. The launch could possibly be delayed by climate or different disruptions.
Elon Musk’s reusable rocket maker has spent greater than $15 billion on its Starship program, in line with Wednesday’s submitting. The corporate says Starship is vital to launching extra satellites into orbit to construct out its Starlink constellation at a sooner tempo than it has been capable of utilizing Falcon 9 rockets. Starlink delivers wi-fi web companies to shoppers, companies and authorities companies.
The newest model of the Starship rocket might be launching from a newly designed pad at SpaceX’s facility in Starbase, Texas, an official firm city beforehand often known as Boca Chica.
The check flight will probably mark the corporate’s final likelihood to dazzle traders with a Starship launch earlier than shares hit the general public market. Final yr, SpaceX’s area section generated income of $4.1 billion and recorded an working lack of $657 million.
The corporate counts on Starlink for a hefty quantity of income and all of its income. The connectivity unit, which consists largely of Starlink, introduced in gross sales of $11.4 billion and working revenue of $4.4 billion in 2025. That accounted for 61% of the corporate’s complete gross sales final yr, and 69% within the first quarter.
About its area enterprise, SpaceX mentioned in its prospectus that its “progress technique is dependent upon our capacity to extend our launch cadence and payload capability, which depends on the profitable improvement of Starship at scale.”
Musk has lengthy held the grandiose purpose of colonizing Mars, utilizing the Starship rocket to raise cargo and as many as 100 individuals at a time into orbit.
NASA can also be betting that Starship will function the lander to hold its astronauts to the moon on its Artemis IV mission, at the moment slated for early 2028. The mission would mark U.S. astronauts’ first journey again to the moon in additional than half a century.
Starship V3 stands 408 ft tall when totally stacked, and options new engines that ought to make it a stronger rocket, with 18 million kilos of thrust. The corporate will carry mock Starlink satellites through the check flight however no astronauts or different cargo.
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