SpaceX Unveils Starship V3 for Mars Missions

SpaceX today unveiled Starship V3, the fully reusable heavy-lift vehicle built to carry the first crewed Mars missions. The new variant triples payload capacity over V2 and introduces a redesigned heat shield that survives more than 50 atmospheric re-entries without refurbishment.

Engineers say the propulsion stack now runs on a closed-loop methalox cycle that recovers nearly all unburned propellant, cutting launch costs by an estimated 40 percent. A crewed shakedown flight to lunar orbit is slated for later this year, with the first uncrewed Mars cargo run expected during the next transfer window.

"This is the vehicle that makes a permanent Mars settlement a logistics problem, not a physics problem," said the program's chief engineer at today's unveiling.