Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE 5/12/2026
SpaceX has announced that the twelfth flight test of Starship is preparing to launch as soon as Tuesday, May 19. The launch window will open at 5:30 p.m. Central Texas Time (CT).
The upcoming flight will debut the next generation Starship and Super Heavy vehicles, powered by the next evolution of the Raptor engine and launching from a newly designed pad at Starbase.
Here is the SpaceX posted upgrades debuting on Starship, Super Heavy, Raptor, and the launch pad on Flight 12, as reported by the company.
Primary goal
The flight test’s primary goal will be to demonstrate each of these new pieces in the flight environment for the first time, with each element of the Starship architecture featuring significant redesigns to enable full and rapid reuse that incorporate learnings from years of development and test.
The booster’s primary test objective will be executing a successful launch, ascent, stage separation, boostback burn, and landing burn at an offshore landing point in the Gulf of America. As this is the first flight test of a significantly redesigned vehicle, the booster will not attempt a return to the launch site for catch.
In-space and reentry objectives
The Starship upper stage will target multiple in-space and reentry objectives, including the deployment of 22 Starlink simulators, similar in size to next-generation Starlink satellites.
The last two Starlink simulator satellites deployed will scan Starship’s heat shield and transmit imagery down to operators to test methods of analyzing Starship’s heat shield readiness for return to launch site on future missions.
Several tiles on Starship have been painted white to simulate missing tiles and serve as imaging targets in the test. The Starlink simulators will be on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship. A relight of a single Raptor engine while in space is also planned.
For Starship entry, a single heat shield tile has been intentionally removed to measure the aerodynamic load differences on adjacent tiles when there is a tile missing. Finally, the ship will perform experimental actions tested on previous flight tests, including a maneuver to intentionally stress the structural limits of the vehicle’s rear flaps and a dynamic banking maneuver to mimic the trajectory that future missions returning to Starbase will fly.
Super Heavy V3 Change Highlights
The Super Heavy V3 booster features several significant upgrades.
The number of grid fins has been reduced from four to three, with each fin now 50% larger and significantly stronger. These fins include a new catch point and have been re-clocked on the booster to support vehicle lift and catch operations.
The fins have also been lowered to reduce heat exposure from Starship’s engines during hot-staging. Additionally, the grid fin shaft, actuator, and fixed structure have been moved inside the booster’s main fuel tank for better protection.
An integrated hot stage replaces the previous single-use protective interstage. The forward dome of the booster fuel tank is now directly exposed to the Starship upper stage’s Raptor engines upon ignition, with the booster’s internal fuel tank pressure and a non-structural layer of steel protecting it during stage separation. And the actuators on the interstage that connect the ship and booster now retract after separation to further shield them from Raptor exhaust.
More:
https://www.leonarddavid.com/spacex-starship-12-flight-details/
