7 March 2026 year of Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, said in a post on social networks, that the first flight version 3 (V3) Starship will take place “at approx 4 weeks" (Approximately 4 April). According to his previous statement from 26 the launch was supposed to take place in January 9 March.
SpaceX provided the information, which has already completed the "cryo-strength test" of the upper stage of the Starship called Ship 39, intended for the next launch. Tests demonstrate fueling and structural strength. The delay occurs against the background of that, that NASA is actively pushing and SpaceX, and Blue Origin, which have HLS contracts to develop manned lunar landers for the Artemis program, speed up work. In October 2025 2010, then NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy said, that it is ready to "open" SpaceX's current contract to supply the lander for the first manned Artemis mission 3 and ask both companies to provide acceleration plans. The companies submitted the following plans, however, no details have been released at this time.
Since then, NASA has revised the architecture of Artemis: 27 was announced in February, that Artemis 3 will now be a mission in low Earth orbit in the middle 2027 year, where Orion will dock with lunar landers from Blue Origin and/or SpaceX. Next will be attempts to land on the moon in Artemis 4 early 2028 year and Artemis 5 at the end 2028 year.
Source: https://spacenews.com