SpaceX Starship Flight 12 launch updates: 1st Starship V3 will now launch on May 21

Refresh 2026-05-19T06:03:00.677Z SpaceX Starship Flight 12 will now launch on May 21 The 12th test flight of SpaceX's Starship megarocket has slipped yet again, to Thursday evening (May 21). That's the second delay in the past two days; SpaceX had originally targeted Tuesday (May 19) for the launch but pushed it to Wednesday (May 20). And now Wednesday is off the table as well . Starship Flight 12 is currently targeted to lift off from SpaceX 's Starbase site in South Texas on Thursday, during a 90-minute window that opens at 6:30 p.m. EDT (2230 GMT; 5:30 local time in Texas) . You can watch it here at Space.com when the time comes. The test flight will send Starship's upper stage on a suborbital trajectory partway around the world, with splashdown coming in the Indian Ocean off Western Australia about 65 minutes after liftoff. Starship's Super Heavy first stage will make a controlled splashdown of its own in the Gulf of Mexico about seven minutes after launch. Flight 12 will mark the debut of Starship Version 3 (V3), the biggest and most powerful iteration of the rocket to date. It features many upgrades over its predecessors, which helps explain the long gap in Starship flights. The megarocket last took to the sky in October 2025 . 2026-05-18T21:30:35.469Z What time is Starship V3 launch? Road closure clues SpaceX conducts a launch rehearsal with its first Starship V3 megarocket at its Starbase site in South Texas on May 11, 2026. …