SpaceX once again played the game of fire and ash with Flight 12 Starship’s Booster 19. A full-duration static fire test with 33 Raptor engines was conducted at Starbase, Texas, yesterday.
SpaceX performed a static fire test on Booster 19 for the 2nd time. This was an unexpected test, as SpaceX had already performed a static fire test on this Flight 12 rocket booster last month.
This 2nd static fire test of Booster 19 lasted for the full duration of 14 seconds. 33 Raptor engines, the booster structure, and the Pad 2 orbital launch mount (OLM) successfully endured the intense fire, heat, and thrust of engine firing.
A single Raptor 3 engine delivers a 280 tonne-force (tf) of thrust. 33 engines firing at once ideally create a thrust of 9,240 tf (~20.3 million pound-force/lbf). SpaceX has designed and engineered Pad 2 to handle around 10,000 tf of thrust during testing and Starship liftoff.
Elon Musk’s space exploration and astronautics company, SpaceX, released stunning footage of the 2nd static fire test of Booster 19 from both ground and bird’s-eye views (videos below).
Massive clouds of mist formed on either side of the Pad 2 OLM. The redesigned OLM and its upgraded water deluge system are designed to withstand the heat of the 33 Raptor 3 engines firing at once.
Pad 2 features a dual-way flame trench and an improved water deluge system. It also features a new detonation suppression system (DSS) to disperse oxygen under the launch pad to mitigate the expansion of fire and heat.
The success of Thursday’s static fire test suggests that the Flight 12 launch is getting very close. As of this writing, SpaceX hasn’t announced a no-earlier-than (NET) and backup window dates for Starship’s 12th launch and landing test.
Starship’s 12th launch is an integrated flight test (IFT-12). When the upper-stage Starship (Ship 39) is mounted on the lower-stage rocket booster (Booster 19), it’s called an integrated Starship. Since this is going to be done for the 12th time in Starship’s history, it’s called IFT-12.
According to Elon Musk’s previous comments, the Flight 12 launch might just be a week or two away. SpaceX is aiming to perform this test in May. It’s possible because both the upper stage Ship 39 and Booster 19 have successfully passed the mandatory pre-flight testing.
Stay tuned as we cover the Starship Flight 12 live updates when it happens.
Let’s watch the stunning footage of the 2nd, full-duration (14-second) static fire test of Booster 19 at Starbase, Texas.
I sped up the slo-mo shot to be realtime.
— Geoff A (@DeffGeff) May 7, 2026
🎦@SpaceX https://t.co/8jn857XECs pic.twitter.com/lwEJR4FOcP
B19 came out to play today!
— Max Evans (@_MaxQ_) May 7, 2026
Raptor 3’s chirping at startup and the overpressure from ignition are absolutely wild. https://t.co/khi0JxzLKG pic.twitter.com/S6NtEt46at
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