Now that there has been a successful Flight 10 of Starship. There will be the start of using version 3 Starship in flight 12.
Fuel transfer capability is critical for the $3.5 billion NASA-SpaceX Lunar Starship program. SpaceX will test as much as they can in the single Starship launches as previously discussed by NASA.
SpaceX will not have two Starships in orbit at the same time until about January-March 2026. They would likely launch them back to back about two weeks apart as they work towards weekly launch cadence. Elon in his technical discussion said the two Starship refueling would be done in 2026. This needs to be done as early as possible for the other goals of unmanned Mars and lunar landing tests for Artemis 3.
The fuel transfer between SpaceX Starships will become common and frequent. It will be need for lunar landing as refueling is needed to send Starship to the moon and it is needed to send Starship to Mars.
Inside Starship there is a redesigned fuel transfer tube.
The redesigned fuel transfer tube for the Superheavy booster is a key component. This massive tube, roughly the size of a Falcon 9 first stage, channels cryogenic fuel (liquid methane and oxygen) to the booster’s 33 Raptor engines.
Simultaneous Engine Startup: Unlike previous designs with staggered startups, the new tube allows all 33 engines to ignite at once, reducing risks like uneven thrust or ignition failures that affected past flights (e.g., Flights 7 and 8)
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