— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 12, 2026 The Raptor engines also underwent notable upgrades since their last flight, offering greater promised performance. “Raptor 3 engines deliver increased thrust, with sea-level variants now producing 250 tf (551,000 lbf) up from 230 tf (507,000 lbf), while vacuum engines produce 275 tf (606,000 lbf) up from 258 tf (568,000 lbf),” SpaceX said. “Sensors and controllers are now internally integrated and covered by engine thermal protection, eliminating the need for individual engine shrouds on both Starship and Super Heavy. All engine variants will also now feature a redesigned ignition system. “Mass of the Raptor sea-level engines has been reduced to 1,525 kg from 1,630 kg. Overall vehicle-level mass savings reach approximately 1 ton per engine through simplification of the engine itself, vehicle-side commodities, and supporting hardware.” The debut of Starship V3 is a long time coming and will be critical for NASA’s plans to return humans to the Moon. This iteration of the rocket will eventually demonstrate propellant transfer capabilities, which will be needed to support flights of the Human Landing System iteration of the rocket. Both Starship and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mk.2 designed mission architectures that require multiple launches and for fuel to shift from a tanker to their respective landers. A propellant transfer as such has never been done before in space. “That first prop transfer flight is going to be really important to us for SpaceX and we expect to see that and get some real great data from it,” said Tom Percy, NASA’s HLS Systems Engineering and Integration Manager, based at the Marshall Space Flight Center. He spoke with Spaceflight Now prior to the launch of NASA’s Artemis 2 mission in April. “I think more importantly for me, just as a long-term vision for space exploration, we know that multi-launch architectures for deep-space exploration are going to have to become a common thing. And so all the things that both providers (both SpaceX and Blue Origin) are doing to manage the development and the understanding of how to coordinate multiple launches to be able to build these bigger exploration systems is going to help us not only for the Moon, but also for Mars and beyond.”