Starship V3 Debuts as Flight 12 Stacks Up for May 21 Test Flight

SpaceX is preparing Flight 12 of its Starship by stacking the Version 3 upper stage (Ship 39) atop Booster 19 at Starbase, Texas, with a wet dress rehearsal planned ahead of a May 21 liftoff in a 90-minute window that starts at 6:30 p.m. EDT. Flight 12 will be the first Starship flight of 2026 and the debut of the Starship Version 3, featuring upgrades aimed at NASA's Artemis program and future Starlink/data-center missions. The mission will loft the upper stage on a suborbital path, deploy 20 dummy Starlink satellites and two modified probes, and see the Super Heavy booster splash down in the Gulf of Mexico while Starship splash-lands in the Indian Ocean off Western Australia; SpaceX plans eventual recovery of both stages at Starbase with its Mechazilla arms.