SpaceX fires up next-gen 'V3' Starship for 1st time ahead of April launch (photos)

a large silver rocket stands on a launch pad at sunset — The Starship V3 Super Heavy vehicle known as Booster 19 stands on Pad 2 at SpaceX's Starbase site. (Image credit: SpaceX via X)

SpaceX's biggest, most powerful Starship to date just breathed fire for the first time.

On Monday (March 16), the company conducted a static fire test with Starship's "Super Heavy" first stage, briefly igniting the booster's engines while the vehicle remained anchored to Pad 2 at SpaceX's Starbase site in South Texas.

It was the first-ever static fire for a Version 3 (V3) vehicle — the latest iteration of Starship, which SpaceX is developing to help humanity put boots on the moon and Mars. The test broke ground in another way as well: It was the first to occur at Pad 2, which will double Starbase's launch capacity when it comes online.

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ground-level view of a large silver rocket firing its engines on the launch pad beneath a blue sky — Starship's Booster 19 performs a 10-engine static fire test atop Pad 2 at SpaceX's Starbase site on March 16, 2026. (Image credit: SpaceX via X)

"Initial Super Heavy V3 and Starbase Pad 2 activation campaign complete, wrapping up several days of testing that loaded cryogenic fuel and oxidizer on a V3 vehicle for the first time," SpaceX wrote via X on Wednesday (March 18), in a post that shared four photos of the Super Heavy, known as Booster 19, on the pad.

That post also revealed that the static fire involved just 10 engines and "ended early due to a ground-side issue." The next step will be a static fire with Booster 19's full complement of 33 Raptor engines, 23 of which still need to be installed.

Monday's operation was part of the leadup to Starship's 12th-ever test flight, which SpaceX wants to launch in early to mid-April. That mission will be the first ever for a V3 vehicle. Booster 19 will fly with a Starship upper stage called Ship 39, which recently passed a key "cryoproofing" test at Starbase's Massey site.

Starship V3 is slightly taller than V2 — 408.1 feet (124.4 meters) vs. 403.9 feet (123.1 m). Thanks to its new V3 Raptor engine, the latest variant is also significantly more powerful: It can haul more than 100 tons to low Earth orbit, compared to about 35 tons for Starship V2, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has said.

V3 is also the first iteration of the megarocket capable of journeying to the moon and Mars. But there are a number of boxes to check before it can attempt to do so — reaching Earth orbit successfully, for example, and demonstrating the ability to top up its fuel tanks away from our planet.

Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.