— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 14, 2025 “Great work by the @SpaceX team,” founder Elon Musk wrote on his social media site, X, following the conclusion of the mission. This was the final Starship launch of the year and the last mission that will fly from Pad A in its current configuration. SpaceX now turns its attention to completing and testing Version 3 of Starship-Super Heavy, which will begin launch from Pad B. It’s this iteration of the rocket that SpaceX intends to use for launching payloads to orbit and eventually flying missions to the Moon and Mars. To get to those missions beyond low Earth orbit though, SpaceX will need to master the ability to both transfer and store propellant in orbit. An artist’s rendering of the Human Landing System version of Starship docking with NASA’s Orion spacecraft in lunar orbit. Graphic: SpaceX NASA is counting on SpaceX to hammer out the logistics for this ship-to-ship propellant transfer system for missions connected to the Artemis program. SpaceX was awarded billions of dollars to perform landing operations for astronauts on the Artemis 3 and Artemis 4 missions. Before that though, SpaceX needs to conduct an on-orbit propellant transfer demonstration, something that at one point was intended to happen in 2025. It’s unclear how many launches will be required to fill a tanker version of Starship that can then offload its propellant to a Human Landing System variant of the rocket for Moon-bound missions. SpaceX is on contract to perform an uncrewed landing demonstration with a liftoff from the lunar surface prior to carrying crew onboard though the timing of this is unclear. The Artemis 3 mission is currently scheduled for mid-2027, just over a year after Artemis 2, which will not feature a Moon landing.