SpaceX eyes Starship 12

SpaceX is lining up Starship’s 12th test flight for May, after a new upper stage and booster cleared key ground tests in South Texas. (spacex.com) (space.com) Starship is SpaceX’s two-part Moon-and-Mars rocket: a 52-meter spacecraft on top of a 71-meter Super Heavy booster, built to fly again instead of being thrown away after one launch. SpaceX says the full stack stands 123 meters tall and can carry 100 to 150 metric tons when reused. (spacex.com) The Flight 12 vehicle is the first “Version 3” Starship, a new configuration SpaceX has been testing this month at Starbase, Texas. SpaceX said on April 14 that it completed a full-duration static fire of the V3 ship, and industry trackers reported a 33-engine booster test on April 15. (space.com) (spaceexplored.com) Those tests matter because NASA’s lunar plan uses a Starship variant as the Human Landing System for Artemis III, the mission meant to take astronauts from lunar orbit to the Moon’s surface and back. NASA says SpaceX is also developing a second, upgraded Starship lander for Artemis IV that can dock with the Gateway station. (nasa.gov) A Moon landing with Starship does not work with one launch. The lander has to be filled up in Earth orbit first, which is why repeated Starship launches and in-space fuel transfer have become central milestones in NASA’s Artemis architecture. (nasa.gov) (spacepolicyonline.com) SpaceX has not posted a public launch date on its mission page, but outside coverage this week said the company is targeting May after earlier slips. USA Today reported on April 8 that Elon Musk said Flight 12 had moved to the first two weeks of May. (spacex.com) (usatoday.com) The launch also sits inside a larger regulatory push. The Federal Aviation Administration says SpaceX must obtain launch approvals for Starship operations from Boca Chica in Texas, while a separate federal review for future Starship operations at Kennedy Space Center in Florida has reached a final environmental decision. (faa.gov 1) (faa.gov 2) Starship has flown 11 times so far, and Flight 12 is being watched less as a one-off spectacle than as a test of whether SpaceX can start flying the vehicle often enough to support orbital refueling and, eventually, a lunar landing campaign. (wikipedia.org) (foxweather.com)