SpaceX’s launch crew topped the Starship V3 booster with more than 11 million pounds of methane and liquid oxygen after a Saturday night hiccup. The fill took place Monday at Starbase, the company’s new launch complex, setting a new height record for rockets ever built. The scale dwarfs the Falcon 9, whose first stage spans 12 feet in diameter.

A test fire on May 6 ignited all 33 Raptor 3 engines, the first time the upgraded motors have run together at launch site. At liftoff, the stack should deliver about 18 million pounds of thrust—roughly ten percent higher than the previous Super Heavy boosters, according to released specs.

This flight will launch from a new pad 1,000 feet west of earlier Starship sites, marking the 12th full‑scale test and the first since October after delays. The trajectory bends southward over the Gulf of Mexico, skirting the Yucatan Peninsula and Cuba instead of the Florida Straits.

Before the next launch, engineers must install the self‑destruct system and remove the vessel from the booster, while awaiting a Federal Aviation Administration license. The move underscores SpaceX’s push for rapid iteration, but also highlights the regulatory hurdles that still shadow large‑scale orbital test programs.