SpaceX rolling out Flight 3 Starship and Super Heavy Booster

We earlier reported that SpaceX is increasing the movement around the orbital launch pad and the company has now confirmed to roll out Flight 3 Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy Booster rocket to the launch site.

“Flight 3 Starship and Super Heavy move to the pad at Starbase,” SpaceX wrote on X while sharing some images of the booster and Starship rollout.

Starship has two stages, the first stage consists of a super-heavy rocket, and the second stage Starship spacecraft. The Starship could take up to 150 metric tonnes of fully reusable and 250 metric tonnes of expandable payload.

The first stage uses 33 Raptor engines to liftoff the integrated flight and take it to the upper atmosphere. It fires sub-cooled liquid methane (CH4) and liquid oxygen (LOX). During the liftoff, the booster generates a massive 7,590 tf of thrust and has a propellant capacity of 3,400 t.

Starship Spacecrat Rolling out to SpaceX Starbase (Credit – SpaceX)

Super Heavy booster is fully reusable and it lands back at the launch site.

Starship spacecraft, on the other hand, leads the mission after stage separation. It has 6 Raptor engines that could generate a thrust of 1,500 tf at the time of hot staging.

In the second flight test in November, SpaceX cleared both integrated liftoff and stage separation. However, the booster rocket blew up after hot-staging and Starship also lost connection with mission control as it also met the same fate afterward.

Despite these two events, Starship achieved two major milestones from the first and second flight tests, which could contribute to the third. A past report suggests that Starship Flight 3 may happen this month but the FAA’s approval will be required to conduct the test.