SpaceX's Starship megarocket finally has a 2026 launch date. Here's when

• SpaceX is targeting a May launch date for its enormous Starship rocket after a series of delays.
• The upcoming flight will be the debut of a new-and-improved prototype known as Version 3.
• This will be Starship's 12th flight test and its first launch in over seven months.
• NASA is awaiting the development of Starship to serve as a lunar lander for its Artemis moon missions.

At long last, SpaceX's enormous Starship rocket is due to fly again.

The spaceflight company, which billionaire Elon Musk founded in 2002, has announced that it is targeting a May launch date from South Texas to send the world's largest rocket on a mission potentially stretching halfway around the world.

The news comes amid a series of delays for the debut of SpaceX's new-and-improved Starship prototype, which will become the largest rocket the company has ever launched. Starship, which has not flown in 2026, last got off the ground more than seven months ago on its 11th flight test since April 2023.

Since then, Musk's team has been readying a fresh design of the rocket, which could be the version that finally reaches orbit and demonstrates key capabilities required to take humans deep into space. NASA is likely also eager to see what SpaceX's upgraded Starship has in store as the space agency waits for the company to produce a lunar lander for its upcoming Artemis moon missions.

Here's what to know about the date for the next Starship flight test.

When is the next Starship launch? What to know about flight 12

SpaceX is working toward a Tuesday, May 19 launch of its Starship rocket, the company announced. The launch window is due to open at 6:30 p.m. ET, with the massive rocket getting off the ground from SpaceX's Starbase company town and headquarters in Texas near the U.S.-Mexico border.

If the launch needs to be postponed, a planning advisory from the Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial rocket launches, suggests another opportunity is available May 20.

The highly anticipated flight test, the date for which has slipped multiple times in 2026, would be Starship's 12th launch overall and its first since October 2025. The seven-month gap between missions represents the longest drought for Starship since SpaceX debuted the rocket in April 2023.

What is SpaceX Starship Version 3? V3 to make debut

The lengthy wait for a mission SpaceX refers to as flight 12, though, comes as the spaceflight company took extra time to prepare a new and improved version of Starship.

The next time Starship gets off the ground, it will be the largest and most powerful version that SpaceX has ever launched.

If all goes to plan, SpaceX's next prototype of Starship, known as Version 3 (V3,) could be the model to reach orbit and also refuel its upper stage midflight.  The complex process requires two Starships equipped with docking adapters to meet in orbit to transfer hundreds of tons of super-cooled propellant.

What is Starship? World's largest rocket built for moon, Mars

That capability is what will allow Starship to fulfill Musk's primary objective for the spacecraft: send humans deep into space, including to Mars.

Standing at more than 400 feet tall when fully stacked, Starship is regarded as the largest and most powerful launch vehicle in the world.

The fully integrated spacecraft is composed of both a lower-stage booster known as Super Heavy, as well as an upper stage simply called Starship. Powered by 33 of SpaceX's Raptor-class engines, the booster provides the initial burst of thrust at liftoff, while the vehicle is where the crew and cargo would ride in orbit after the stages separate.

SpaceX is developing the rocket to be a fully reusable transportation system that can carry huge satellites and other payloads to space, meaning both the rocket and vehicle can return to the ground for additional missions.

In the years ahead, Starship is competing with Blue Origin to develop a lunar lander to help NASA astronauts land on the moon under the U.S. space agency's Artemis program. Musk also has dreams of Starship being the vehicle that transports the first humans to Mars – though in February he announced SpaceX's intentions of shifting its focus to building a lunar city first.

See photos of SpaceX's Starship megarocket

What happened on previous Starship flight tests?

The massive rocket has encountered a number of anomalies and failures since its debut in April 2023 ended in a premature explosion, including fiery mishaps both on the test stand and mid-flight that have attracted plenty of headlines.

But SpaceX has also managed to demonstrate what an incredible feat of engineering Starship has the potential to become.

Throughout the course of 11 flight tests to date, SpaceX has twice seen Starship deploy mock Starlink internet satellites, twice reused a Super Heavy booster and three times has caught a returning booster back at the launch site with giant mechanical arms known as "chopsticks." The upper stage, meanwhile, has managed to consistently fly at a suborbital height, traveling halfway around the world while landing in the Indian Ocean.

SpaceX conducted five Starship flight tests in 2025, the first three of which ended in disaster when the vehicle met a fiery demise before completing many key objectives. But SpaceX ended 2025 on a high note, with its final two Starship launches of the year in August and October being considered inarguable successes.

Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at [email protected]