For SpaceX, the stakes of next week’s Starship rocket test flight are sky-high

SpaceFor SpaceX, the stakes of next week’s Starship rocket test flight are sky-highElon Musk’s company is preparing to launch a new version of its megarocket — a prototype of the system NASA could use to carry astronauts to the moon’s surface.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Starship V3 on the launchpad during a rehearsal.SpaceXShareAdd NBC News to GoogleMay 17, 2026, 7:30 AM EDTBy Denise ChowSpaceX plans to launch an updated version of its Starship megarocket — a new prototype of the system that NASA hopes will carry its astronauts to the moon in two years — on a critical test flight Tuesday.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.The stakes for Starship, and by extension for Elon Musk’s rocket company, have perhaps never been higher. SpaceX is developing Starship as part of NASA’s Artemis program and racing against its rival, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, to build a lunar lander for NASA to use in 2028, when it aims to put astronauts on the moon. Late next year, NASA intends to test one or both of those new vehicles in low-Earth orbit on the Artemis III mission.At the same time, SpaceX is preparing to go public. Its highly anticipated IPO, expected next month, could be the biggest of all time. Reuters reported on Friday that the company aims to make its prospectus ​public as early as Wednesday — the day after the Starship test flight — ahead of a market debut possibly by mid-June.This all comes after Starship suffered a string of setbacks during test flights last year, including an uncontrolled re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere and two midflight explosions as the upper-stage vehicles were accelerating into space.Starship’s most recent test flight, its 11th in total, took place seven months ago. Since then, the booster, called Super Heavy, and upper stage, called simply Ship, have undergone major redesigns. The upcoming launch will be the first test flight of SpaceX’s new third-generation S...