The road to Starship’s 12th Flight test with the latest V3 generation is getting even more interesting with each passing day.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX performed a propellant load test on Booster 19 on Tuesday. According to live observers at Starbase, Texas, loading propellant on the V3 Super Heavy booster was faster compared to the previous V1 and V2 generation rockets.
Starship’s V3 Super Heavy Boosters are around ~72.3 meters tall (including the new hot-staging ring). The majority of this length is dedicated to loading 3,650 tonnes of propellant.
The loading of ultra-chilled propellant (liquid oxygen and methane), providing stunning views of the Flight 12 Booster 19 at Starbase, Texas (videos below).
It only took around 30 minutes to fully load Booster 19 with LOX and methane. Starship V3 also marks a significant improvement in large rocket reusability. SpaceX has cut around ~5 minutes of propellant load time compared to V1/V2 Starship generation.
It’s critical to improve turnaround times to ready spaceships and rockets for reflight if rapid reusability has to be achieved.
Yesterday, SpaceX also conducted a spin prime test on Booster 19, further completing the requirements for the next launch test. This Flight 12 Super Heavy rocket has already completed its cryogenic pressure-proof tests last month.
After the success of the prop-load and spin prime tests, the next step is the static fire test. Booster 19 is the first V3 Super Heavy rocket equipped with the Raptor 3 engines.
Upgraded design and the latest generation of the Raptor engine make the Flight 12 Starship launch a unique experiment, as all of this equipment hasn’t been tested before in a real flight.
Raptor 3’s significantly higher thrust and simplified design will be tested for the first time in Flight 12. However, SpaceX has installed only ten Raptor engines on Booster 19 for the current set of tests.
So, we will only witness a static fire test with 10 engines, unless SpaceX takes the rocket back to the production site and installs all 33 engines before conducting a static fire.
Booster 19 Prelaunch Test Videos
The propellant-load test of the Booster 19 Starship V3 rocket has created some stunning views at Starbase. In the following time-lapse video, NasaSpaceFlight (NSF) team has reduced the propellant load and detanking procedure into a 1-minute 18-second clip.
Prop-load can be observed externally by observing the rocket’s surface getting frosty as the propellant moves into the upper tanks (1.83 m / 6ft rings). As the detanking procedure starts, the frost moves downwards as the super-chilled fuel moves down and the structure goes back to normal temperature.
Booster 19 is on the Pad 2 launch mount, and she is looking good!
— Erik Fraser (@efraser77) March 9, 2026
🎥https://t.co/5b1GE4zkY9 @NASASpaceflight pic.twitter.com/YlhrxkLpJx
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Related SpaceX / Starship News
- SpaceX conducts successful static fire tests on Starship 39 and Booster 19, Flight 12 happening in a few weeks
- Starship Flight 12: Booster 19’s 10-engine static fire ends abruptly, SpaceX prepares for a 33-engine static fire test
- Starship Flight 12: V3 Booster 19 shows better propellant load speeds, static fire next with only 10 Raptor 3 engines
- Starship Flight 12: SpaceX to test Raptor 3 engines on the V3 Booster 19 for the first time
- Flight 12 Starship V3 (Ship 39) survives three cryo tests (videos)
- SpaceX prepares for Flight 12 Starship prelaunch testing, the first V3 Starship 39 (Starbase updates)
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