More testing will be needed before SpaceX's newest version of Starship gets off the ground.

On Thursday (Nov. 20), SpaceX rolled out Booster 18, the first stage of the company's first "Version 3" Starship megarocket, to begin its first round of tests ahead of the vehicle's next flight test. V3 will take the torch from Starship V2, which wrapped up a year of growing pains with two consecutive test-flight successes, in August and October of this year.

Now, it seems, V3 will have some growing pains of its own. SpaceX announced that tests on the new booster would begin at the company's Starbase facility in South Texas in a Nov. 20 post on X. "The first operations will test the booster's redesigned propellant systems and its structural strength," the company said. But by Friday morning (Nov.

See Full Page