SpaceX Launches Most Powerful Starship Version Yet

SpaceX launched its most powerful and upgraded Starship rocket yet on Friday from the company's Starbase site on the Texas Gulf Coast, marking the debut of the third-generation version 3 (V3) Starship two days after CEO Elon Musk announced the company would go public through an initial public offering. The 407-foot-tall rocket, generating up to 18 million pounds of thrust from its 33 methane-burning Raptor engines, took off after a last-minute scrub Thursday due to minor launch pad issues, carrying 20 mock Starlink satellites for deployment halfway around the world. Neither the Super Heavy booster nor the Starship upper stage was recovered during this test flight, with both splashing down as planned in the Gulf of Mexico and Indian Ocean respectively. The V3 Starship features a completely redesigned propulsion system, an enlarged fuel tank, and new systems for longer missions including hardware for autonomous fuel transfer operations in Earth orbit, a capability critical for NASA's Artemis moon landing program. SpaceX also debuted its second Texas launch pad, specifically engineered to endure repeated launches with minimal refurbishment time between flights. The test flight included releasing 22 Starlink satellite simulators from a dispenser, re-igniting a Raptor engine in space, deliberately removing a heat-shield tile to test thermal effects on surrounding tiles, and performing structural stress tests on the vehicle's rear flaps. Musk signaled that SpaceX could be valued at $1.75 trillion in the IPO, a figure roughly 100 times the company's 2025 annual revenue of $18.5 billion. The launch represents a major milestone for NASA's Artemis program, which is counting on SpaceX to deliver a lunar lander version of Starship to carry astronauts to the moon's south pole starting in 2028. President-elect Donald Trump attended the launch alongside Musk at the Starbase facility. The company plans to conduct orbital refueling tests before the end of the year, a necessary step before Starship can journey beyond Earth's orbit.