Starship tests accelerate
- A Starship V3 hot‑fire test reportedly lit 33 engines at once in a 'brutal but controlled' experiment. (youtube.com) - Observers also posted a 'preflight closeup' of Booster 19, indicating visible vehicle readiness activity at Starbase. (youtube.com) - Separately, Japan's MMX mission plans to orbit Phobos in 2027 and attempt a sample return by 2031. (x.com)
A rocket static fire is a hold-down engine test, like revving a jet on the runway before takeoff. SpaceX has now run that test with all 33 engines on Super Heavy Booster 19, the first Block 3 booster slated for Starship Flight 12. (space.com) SpaceX first tested Booster 19 with 10 engines on March 16, 2026, at Starbase’s new Pad 2 in South Texas. In mid-April, it followed with a full 33-engine static fire, a step multiple spaceflight trackers and reports tied directly to Flight 12 preparations. (space.com) (spaceexplored.com) Booster 19 then returned to Mega Bay 1 after the preflight test campaign, and NASASpaceflight said the vehicle was back inside for final work ahead of a potential May launch. NextSpaceflight also listed Booster 19 and Ship 39 as the active hardware pair for the next integrated Starship mission. (youtube.com) (nextspaceflight.com) Block 3 is SpaceX’s next Starship generation, and the company is trying to move from isolated engine tests to a full stack that can fly more often. NASASpaceflight reported Ship 39, the matching upper stage, also completed a static fire in April as teams worked both halves of the vehicle in parallel. (nasaspaceflight.com) Pad 2 is part of that push. Space.com reported Booster 19’s March campaign was the first Super Heavy test at the new launch pad, which is intended to add a second orbital launch site at Starbase. (space.com) The larger program goal is not just another test flight. NASASpaceflight said SpaceX is trying to get Block 3 flying so it can turn to the Human Landing System variant of Starship for NASA’s Artemis moon program. (nasaspaceflight.com) A separate Mars mission shows how broad the heavy-launch pipeline has become. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Martian Moons eXploration mission, or MMX, is planned to launch in 2026, enter Mars orbit in August 2027, move into orbit around Phobos in September 2027, and return Phobos samples to Earth in 2031. (mmx.jaxa.jp) (cnes.fr) JAXA says MMX will study Phobos and Deimos, map their surface and interior properties, and bring back rock and sand from Phobos to help answer whether Mars’ moons are captured asteroids or debris from a giant impact. NASA describes it as a Japanese-led sample-return mission with international partners including NASA, the French space agency CNES, the German Aerospace Center, and the European Space Agency. (mmx.jaxa.jp) (science.nasa.gov) (esa.int) For now, the immediate marker is simpler: Booster 19 has completed the kind of full-engine ground test that usually comes just before stacking and launch rehearsals. If SpaceX keeps its current pace, Flight 12 is moving from pad test to flight hardware readiness. (spaceexplored.com) (youtube.com)
