Super Heavy Block 2

Block 2 is the second flight version of Super Heavy and covers the vehicles numbered Booster 14 through Booster 17. Its first launch came on 16 January 2025, and its decisive contribution was not a performance upgrade but a change of nature: with this version the booster stopped being single-use hardware. According to the booster record, four Block 2 vehicles had flown as of May 2026.

On 11 May 2024 SpaceX released an image showing that Booster 14 had been assembled. The vehicle ran its cryogenic tests at Massey's on 4 and 5 October, received its thirty-three engines and performed a static fire on 9 December. Musk confirmed on 2 January 2025 that B14 would be reflying an engine from Booster 12, a foretaste of what was to come. On 9 January Ship 33 was stacked on top of it and the combined vehicle surpassed Starship Block 1 as the tallest rocket ever assembled. It lifted off on 16 January 2025, flew a nominal ascent burn and separated from the upper stage; despite failing to relight an engine for the boostback burn, it returned to the launch site and was caught after igniting all thirteen engines for the landing burn. On 18 January it was rolled to the rocket garden.

That same Booster 14 returned to the launch site on 1 April 2025 and static fired there on 3 April: it was the first recovered Super Heavy booster to fire its engines after a flight. It went back to the production site on 8 April, received its second vented interstage on the 18th and, after shuttling between pad and factory in May, was integrated with Ship 35 on 25 May. On 27 May 2025 it lifted off for the second time, keeping all thirty-three engines lit until main engine cutoff. Unlike its first flight, it ignited all thirteen gimballing engines for the boostback burn and twelve for the landing burn, before detonating over the Gulf of Mexico.

Booster 15 introduced upgraded electrical systems: a more powerful processor and integrated smart batteries. On 23 July 2024 its aft section was photographed with additional tanks attached to the liquid oxygen header tank. It ran cryogenic tests on 27 and 28 December, a static fire on 9 February 2025 and lifted off on 6 March 2025 with Ship 34: it completed the ascent burn, separated, returned and was caught. It went back to the Mega Bay on 8 March and moved to the rocket garden on the 19th. On 6 September 2025 it rolled out to the launch site again for a second static fire, run at full duration on 7 September, and after its vented interstage was installed it was rolled to Pad 1 on 8 October 2025 for its second and final flight, with Ship 38 lifted onto it on 11 October.

The first section of Booster 16 was spotted on 14 October 2024; stacking began late that month and finished in late December. It ran its cryogenic test on 28 February 2025 and its static fire on 6 June, after an attempt aborted the previous day. Its vented interstage was installed on 16 June 2025 and had to be removed following the catastrophic failure of Ship 36's six-engine static fire. On 23 August Ship 37 was stacked on top of it and, after two frustrated attempts — one aborted about ten minutes into propellant load and another scrubbed forty seconds before the targeted time — it lifted off on 26 August 2025. It lost an engine during the ascent burn but completed the landing burn experiment previously scheduled for the earlier flight and splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico about seven minutes after liftoff. Booster 17, by contrast, never flew: its assembly began on 4 January 2025, it ran its cryogenic proof tests at Massey's from 8 April, passed briefly through the Mega Bay, was parked in the rocket garden and was scrapped on 20 November 2025.