SpaceX conducted a static fire test of the flight 6 Starship at their Starbase facility in South Texas. Credit: SpaceX | edited by Space.com's Steve Spaleta

As mentioned above, the spaceflight company is also building a more advanced launchpad — Pad 2 — in another part of the Starbase site. This will be used for the 12th test flight featuring the first launch of Starship version 3, which sports various upgrades over its predecessor.

SpaceX launched another of its mammoth Starship rockets on a test flight Monday, successfully making it halfway around the world while releasing mock satellites like last time. Starship — the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built — thundered into ...

SpaceX launched another of its mammoth Starship rockets on a test flight Monday. The flight was Starship's 11th journey. The rocket lifted off from SpaceX’s Texas Starbase. SpaceX’s Starship successfully launched from its Starbase in Texas on Monday.

There’s clearly plenty of hard work ahead. SpaceX’s Starship faces a number of major technical challenges to get it ready for its first major operational mission, Artemis III, which is set to use a modified Ship to return NASA astronauts to the lunar surface as early as 2027.