Comments on: Musk: Next Starship/Superheavy test launch in mid-March

By: Dick Eagleson

Dick Eagleson — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 07:04:05 +0000

Ray Van Dune,

Actually, Raptor relight tests were successfully performed on test flights 6 and 10 as well as flight 11. So that has been demonstrated three times.

By: Jeff Wright

Jeff Wright — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 03:05:21 +0000

Suffering from COPV?

Ask your doctor about HOPIUM.

* may cause side effects…. symptoms including the constant, unconscious muttering of catch phrases like “orange rocket bad” ” hardware rich” or “test to destruction.”

Contact your physician if you stare into space lifelessly while at Davros—I mean DAVOS.

By: Ray Van Dune

Ray Van Dune — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 23:10:24 +0000

Since the ability to restart engines in space for controlled reentry was only finally demonstrated for Raptor V2 on the last flight, and this will be the first flight for V3, I would be mildly surprised if they went full orbital on this flight.

Partial orbital means it will come down in a safe location even if it doesn’t fire. Full orbital means if it doesn’t fire, you are in deep doo-doo because you really don’t know where it’s going to come down!

By: Richard M

Richard M — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 20:41:56 +0000

The SpaceX quasi-official line at the start was that Starship Flight 12 will be repeating the same suborbital trajectory as Flight 11, with Flight 13 speculated to be the first attempt at testing an orbital trajectory and a Starship catch.

But, it’s also true that with Starship, the official line can change, sometimes on short notice.

I tend to still think they will want this first V3 flight to stick with the same flight path, landing the Starship in the Indian Ocean before a full orbit, before they feel confident in taking this new version on a full orbital flight. But I would not be entirely surprised if they go for the gusto instead.

By: BillB

BillB — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 17:39:41 +0000

If I remember correctly, Elon previously stated that IFT-12 would be on a similar trajectory as the previous flights with the first actual orbital flight no earlier than IFT-13 if all goes well with IFT-12.