Overview
- SpaceX loaded more than 5,000 metric tonnes of supercooled methane and oxygen into the fully stacked Ship 39 and Booster 19 during Monday's full countdown test at Starbase's new Pad 2.
- The wet dress rehearsal is a full fueling and countdown exercise that stops before engine ignition and liftoff.
- A Federal Aviation Administration launch license remains pending, and SpaceX must install flight-termination hardware that requires briefly separating the stages.
- Multiple outlets cite May 15 as a possible target for Flight Test 12, though SpaceX has not confirmed a date.
- The V3 stack stands about 408 feet tall with 33 Raptor 3 engines and an expected 18 million pounds of thrust, and the planned profile uses a more southerly Gulf route with a Starship splashdown in the Indian Ocean that could influence NASA’s Artemis timeline.