SpaceX is preparing to fly the tallest and most powerful rocket ever built on an operational mission. Starship Flight 12, the debut of the upgraded Version 3 vehicle, is expected to lift off from Starbase in Boca Chica,

For the third time in three years, SpaceX has stacked a new version of its enormous Starship rocket on a launch pad in South Texas, just a few miles north of the US-Mexico border. The newest-generation Starship, known as Starship Version 3, is taller and more powerful than the ones that came before it.

SpaceX’s debut launch of Starship V3, and its suite of advanced upgrades, could make or break its lunar landing aspirations.

Flight 12 will mark a huge moment in the history of SpaceX and its activities, as it will debut two next-gen bits of hardware, the Super Heavy booster and the Starship, a new generation of Raptor engines, and a fresh design for the launch complex at Starbase Texas.

Hours after Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin nails its first-ever orbital mission, SpaceX seizes back spotlight as the latest dramatic test of Starship, its gargantuan next-generation megarocket, ends with upper stage blowing up over Atlantic.