SpaceX retires its Starship V2 with one final flawless flight before its most powerful rocket era begins

The Starship V2 from SpaceX just went out with a bang (a non-explosive one), paving the way for its bigger and better successor, the Starship V3.

After a year filled with more fireballs than a Michael Bay movie, SpaceX finally nailed it on October 13, sticking the landing with a perfectly executed test flight.

The 403-foot-tall behemoth soared from its Texas launchpad, flexing a jaw-dropping 16.7 million pounds of thrust.

And with that picture-perfect finale, the V2 officially retired, handing the cosmic baton to the next generation of rockets.

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The Starship V2 completed 11 test flights

The Starship V2’s farewell flight was nothing short of cinematic.

Its Super Heavy booster, powered by 33 Raptor engines, muscled it off the pad before performing a complex new landing sequence.

The booster ignited 13 engines at once, then slowly throttled down before gracefully splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico.

Meanwhile, the upper stage coasted halfway around the world, releasing dummy Starlink satellites, relighting an engine in orbit, and performing a new ‘dynamic banking maneuver’ to collect data for future reentries.

Even its heat shield impressed engineers by surviving reentry from space with zero visible damage, despite some tiles being intentionally removed just to test just how tough it was.

Humans could be returning to the Moon in 2026

With V2’s test chapter closed, SpaceX has its sights set squarely on the future: the Starship V3.

The new rocket is a total overhaul.

It’s taller by five feet, features expanded propellant tanks for extra muscle, and gets a full propulsion makeover courtesy of the next-gen Raptor 3 engines.

Upgrades to energy storage, avionics, and new docking ports are designed to support long-duration missions, including in-orbit refueling tests planned for 2026.

All this progress is leading to the big leagues: NASA’s Artemis program.

SpaceX’s Starship is planned to be the lunar lander that brings astronauts back to the Moon for the first time since Apollo.

In fact, if things go according to plan, humans could return to the Moon by early 2026.

Timeline of SpaceX’s Starship program

2012-2016: Elon Musk begins outlining concepts for a fully reusable rocket system, dubbed the Interplanetary Transport System (ITS)

2017: ITS is rebranded to the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR): a more compact, practical version of the original design

2018: SpaceX officially names the vehicle ‘Starship’

2020: Early Starship test vehicles (SN1-SN4) are built, with several suffering test stand explosions

2021: Prototype SN15 became the first prototype to successfully launch and land without exploding

2022: SpaceX began assembling full-scale Starship + Super Heavy stacks at Starbase, Texas

2023: First integrated orbital test flight ends in midair explosion after partial stage seperation

2025: After several setbacks, the first flawless V2 test flight was achieved

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