SpaceX is wrapping up the action-packed Starship V2 era as the program transitions to V3

Goodbye, V2: SpaceX on Monday night sent the current configuration of Starship on one final test flight, a mission the company says met all of its key goals, moving the program into its next phase.

The nearly 400-foot-long rocket lifted off from Starbase, Texas, at 6:23 p.m. local time. The super-heavy booster, reused from March testing, tried a new landing and burn pattern, reigniting 13 engines before reducing to five, and finally three engines for the final flyby before completing a planned soft landing in the Gulf of Mexico about seven minutes after liftoff.

Meanwhile, Starship’s upper stage deployed eight mock Starlink satellite simulators, to trial a new “dynamic banking maneuver” profile that the company aims to use in future attempts to return to the platform at Starbase. The upper stage then landed in the Indian Ocean.

This marked the final launch of the second generation spacecraft and first generation Super Heavy variants. As with the previous test flight, engineers also experimented with heat shield tiles in the upper stage, including selective removals and new tile changes to collect reentry data.

SpaceX was also replicated Other highlights of the trip 10: Deploying the simulators and restarting one of the Starship’s six Raptor engines in orbit.

Monday’s test officially kicked off the next phase of the program: the launch of an upgraded prototype called V3, equipped for in-orbit docking and fuel transfer demonstrations, capabilities essential for vehicles aiming to reach the Moon and Mars. SpaceX says V3 also includes structural changes and upgrades to the Raptor engine that are intended to increase lift capacity, though the company did not share specific numbers.

“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,” the company said.

In parallel, SpaceX is upgrading Pad A at Starbase, shifting launch operations to Pad B. The company is simultaneously working on building dual launch pads for Starship at Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Starship is the most powerful rocket ever developed. It’s also a cornerstone of NASA’s Artemis campaign and SpaceX’s plan to begin deploying high-capacity Starlink satellites.

NASA’s acting administrator, Sean Duffy, praised the mission on X, saying it was “another big step toward landing Americans on the moon’s south pole.”

SpaceX was awarded More than $4 billion To develop a human version of Starship, called the Human Landing System, for the crewed Artemis 3 mission currently scheduled for 2027. But meeting that date will require SpaceX to demonstrate increasingly complex milestones first, especially orbital docking and in-orbit propellant transfer.