Goodbye V2, SpaceX Enters New Era With Starship V3 Rocket

JAKARTA - SpaceX has ended the era of a second-generation Starship rocket (V2) with a successful last test flight, and has now officially switched to developing a more sophisticated V3 variant.

The nearly 400-foot rocket slid from Starbase, Texas on Monday night, October 13 at 6:23 p.m. local time. In this mission, the company said all key goals were achieved.

Heavy Last Flight Achievements

The Super Heavy:Booster booster, which was reused from last March's test, tried a new landing profile. It restarted its 13 engines, then reduced it to five, and eventually only had three engines to do a "hoover" just before the planned "soft spraydown" in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Upper Stage (Starship): The top part of the rocket has successfully deployed eight Starlink satellite simulators. SpaceX is also testing a new "manuver dynamic banking" aimed at a re-land landing attempt on the runway in the future. Starship then landed in the Indian Ocean itself.

Heat Shield Experiment: As in previous tests, engineers continue to experiment with Starship heat shield tiles, including trying variations and making selective releases to collect data on their return to Earth's atmosphere.

This flight marks the final launch for the first generation Starship V2 and Super Heavy configurations.

Entering A New Phase With Starship V3

The success of this mission has officially started the next phase of the Starship program: flying an upgraded prototype called V3.

V3 is specifically equipped for orbital demonstration-docking and propellant transfer capabilities that are essential for missions to the Moon and Mars. SpaceX also states that the V3 includes structural changes and improvements to the Raptor engine which aims to increase its transport capacity.

"This next Iteration will be used for the first Starship orbital flight, operational missions with payloads, propellant transfers, and more as we seek to create fully reusable vehicles quickly, to serve Earth, Moon, Mars orbits, and beyond," the company said.

Infrastructure Support And The Importance Of Starship

In parallel, SpaceX is upgrading Pad A at Starbase and is temporarily moving the launch to Pad B. The company is also building two Starship launch pads at Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Starship, the most powerful rocket ever developed, is the backbone of NASA's Artemis campaign and SpaceX's plans to start deploying Starlink satellites with higher capacity.

NASA's Administrator executive, Sean Total, praised the mission on X, calling it "a major step towards American astronaut landing at the Moon's south pole."

SpaceX has been awarded more than $4 billion to develop a manned Starship variant, called the Human Landing System, for the manned Artemis 3 mission currently scheduled for 2027. However, to meet the deadline, SpaceX must first demonstrate increasingly complex achievements, especially orbital constraints and propellant transfers in orbit.