Overview
- SpaceX, which fired the V3 upper stage Tuesday and the 33‑engine Super Heavy Wednesday at Starbase, cleared both stages through full‑duration static fires after a March ground‑systems issue cut an earlier booster test short.
- A full‑duration static fire runs engines on the pad for the planned time to verify thrust, propellant flow, and stability, which SpaceX has treated as the last major ground check before a flight test.
- Engineers are now reviewing telemetry before setting a launch date, with Elon Musk saying on April 3 that the next flight was four to six weeks away and no official date announced.
- The V3 stack stands about 124 meters tall and is designed to lift more than 100 tons to low Earth orbit, with the Super Heavy’s 33 Raptor 3 engines producing roughly 9,240 tons of combined thrust in Wednesday’s test.
- NASA has contracted Starship as its Artemis lunar lander, and agency safety advisers say significant Human Landing System hurdles remain, making the next several Starship flights critical to proving crewed capability later in the decade.