SpaceX is gearing up to debut Starship’s Version 3, testing the upgraded rocket’s ability to reach orbit for the first time as the company races to fly missions to the Moon and Mars.

SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk announced on X that Starship’s upcoming launch is in six weeks, scheduling the rocket’s 12th test flight for as early as the second week of March. The company still has quite a bit of testing to do on the latest rocket prototype, but Musk’s announcement does provide an estimated timeframe.

World’s biggest rocket

Starship’s Version 2 launched for the 11th suborbital test flight on October 13, 2025, marking the last time this iteration of the rocket would roll onto the launchpad. The upgraded version, V3, is larger and equipped with more efficient Raptor engines.

While the second-generation prototype flew on a suborbital trajectory, this version of Starship will be used for the rocket’s first orbital flights. According to SpaceX, Starship V3 is the first iteration of the vehicle capable of flying to Mars.

The upgraded vehicle will be about 5 feet (1.5 meters) taller, capable of carrying more propellant, and equipped with new docking adapters for in-orbit fuel transfer. In order to prepare the rocket for missions beyond low Earth orbit, the company needs to equip Starship with a ship-to-ship propellant transfer system to refuel the vehicle in space.

The rocket will also use a more powerful and efficient version of its engines, the third-generation Raptor engines. The Raptor 3 engines boast 280 metric tons of thrust compared to Raptor 2’s 230 metric tons, while being lighter in weight and having significantly fewer parts.

Tile test

Late last year, SpaceX stacked the Super Heavy booster at its Starbase Facility in South Texas ahead of the upcoming test flight. Although the company hasn’t started testing out the vehicle on the launchpad yet, it may be carrying out Starship-related tests on another one of its rockets.

On Sunday, a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 25 Starlink satellites launched to orbit on a routine mission. Photos of the rocket on the launchpad before liftoff revealed black hexagon tiles on the Falcon 9 payload fairing, the same ones used for Starship’s thermal protection system.

Something unusual on the Starlink 17-20 mission payload fairing was visible in launch pad video prior to today’s launch. The black hexagons look very much like Starship thermal protection tiles. pic.twitter.com/4gMBdLxq3a

— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) January 25, 2026

Starship V2 ended its two-year run on a high, acing back-to-back test flights late last year. Although the rocket’s last two flights were successful, they followed a string of mission failures that ended in a series of explosions, suggesting that it may take a while for SpaceX to perfect the upgraded version of Starship.

During an interview in September 2025, Musk admitted that there would be a learning curve with the new version of Starship since “pretty much everything changes on the rocket.”