Elon Musk’s SpaceX is set to fly the first Starship V3 on Tuesday, May 19, the debut of a vehicle the company has rebuilt almost from scratch and the last major test before its expected IPO roadshow.

Liftoff is targeted for 6:30 p.m. EDT from a new pad at Starbase in South Texas. SpaceX has a 90-minute window to get the rocket off the ground before the attempt scrubs to another day.

V3 stands 124.4 meters tall, roughly 1.5 meters taller than its predecessor and the tallest rocket ever built. Both stages run on SpaceX’s new Raptor 3 engine, with the Super Heavy booster’s 33 Raptor 3s generating over 18 million pounds of combined thrust at liftoff. That is more than twice the thrust of NASA’s Saturn V moon rocket.

A redesigned fuel transfer tube roughly the size of a Falcon 9 first stage allows all 33 engines to ignite simultaneously.

Fewer Fins, Hotter Stage

The booster has three grid fins rather than four. Each is about 50% larger and sits lower on the trunk to handle more heat from hot staging, the maneuver where Ship lights its engines before separating from the booster.

The hot-stage ring is now integrated into the booster rather than jettisoned mid-flight. That exposes the forward dome of the methane tank to engine fire during separation, so engineers added a steel shield to protect it.

Because this is the first flight of a fully overhauled vehicle, there will be no chopstick catch attempt. Both Super Heavy and Ship are slated for controlled water splashdowns, the booster in the Gulf and the upper stage in the Indian Ocean.

Stress-Testing The Heat Shield

SpaceX has intentionally removed one heat shield tile and painted others white to simulate damage, allowing engineers to measure aerodynamic load differences during reentry. Past flights flew with multiple tiles missing on purpose. This one flies with one.

The Ship upper stage also gained four docking ports and a dedicated cryogenic propellant management system, the first hardware step toward orbital refueling. SpaceX has said refueling is the capability that unlocks lunar and Mars missions.

What Prediction Markets Are Pricing

Bloomberg reported the IPO is now targeting a valuation above $2 trillion and a raise of $70 billion to $75 billion, up from earlier reports of $1.75 trillion. The prospectus is expected as soon as next week, with the roadshow scheduled for June 8.

Kalshi traders give Flight 12 a 90% chance of lifting off before June but only a 37% chance before May 20, meaning a short delay is likely. Polymarket has SpaceX at an 88% probability of delivering the largest IPO of 2026.

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) remains the cleanest public proxy on the Musk space-AI stack.

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