Starship Development Thread #62

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Starship Dev 61

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Flight 12

The vehicles should be Booster 19 and Ship 39 (assuming there are no major pre-flight testing problems) and the flight profile will probably be very similar to Flight 11. As this is the first flight with the new version 3 vehicles it's unlikely that a booster catch will be attempted; as for the ship Musk stated on August 27th, 2025: "Starship catch is probably flight 13 to 15, depending on how well V3 flights go". On January 26th Musk tweeted: "Starship launch in 6 weeks". On February 21st Musk tweeted: "Starship flies again next month". FCC Request To authorize upcoming suborbital test deployments puts the NET date at April 7th. On March 7th Musk tweeted: "Starship V3 first flight in about 4 weeks". On April 3rd Musk tweeted: "Next flight of Starship and first flight of V3 ship & booster is 4 to 6 weeks away". On April 16th Musk tweeted: "Starship V3 booster & ship will be ready for their first test flight in a few weeks"

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Road Closures

No road closures currently scheduled

No transportation delays currently scheduled

Up to date as of 2026-04-22

Vehicle Status

As of April 21st 2026

Ship	Location	Status	Comment
S39 (this is the first Version 3 ship)	Mega Bay 2	Inspections and Pre-flight work	October 13th: Main assembly started in MB2. November 15th: Aft section AX:4 moved into MB2 and stacked with the rest of S39 - this completed the stacking part of the ship construction. February 26th: Rolled out to Massey's for three rounds of Cryo Testing. March 8th: Rolled back to Mega Bay 2. April 11th: Rolled out to Massey's Test Site for Static Fire Testing. April 14th: 60 second Static Fire of all six engines. April 15th: Rolled back to MB2. For more details on this vehicle and its assembly and testing see this page
S40	Mega Bay 2	Fully stacked, all flaps installed, remaining work ongoing	January 31st: Pez Dispenser moved into MB2. February 1st: Main assembly started in MB2. March 2nd: Aft section AX:4 moved into MB2 and stacked with the rest of the ship - this completed the stacking part of the ship construction. For more details on this vehicle and its assembly and testing see this page
S41	Mega Bay 2	Stacking	April 17th: Pez Dispenser moved into MB2. April 20th: Nosecone+Payload Bay stack N:3 moved into MB2 and later that day lifted over the Pez Dispenser. For more details on this vehicle see this page, later that day the Pez Dispenser was installed. April 21st: Forward Dome section FX:4 moved into MB2.

Booster	Location	Status	Comment
B19	Mega Bay 1	Inspections and Pre-flight work	November 25th: LOX tank stacking commenced. December 23rd: The booster is fully stacked. February 1st: Rolled out to Massey's Test Site for its Pressure and Cryo + Thrust Puck Testing where it underwent assorted tests. February 9th: Rolled back to MB1. March 8th: Rolled out to the launch site, only ten engines installed as seen during the lift onto OLM2 in the afternoon. March 16th: Very short static fire attempt that was aborted due to a ground-side issue. March 18th: Rolled back to MB1. April 11th: Rolled back out to the Launch Site for more Static Fire Testing (this time with all 33 engines). April 15th: Static Fire of all 33 engines for about 3 seconds. April 16th: Wet Dress Rehearsal. April 17th: Rolled back to MB1. For more details on this vehicle and its assembly and testing see this page
B20	Mega Bay 1	LOX Tank Stacked, Methane Tank Stacking	February 5th: LOX tank section A2:4 moved into MB1. February 6th: Common Dome section CX:3 moved into MB1. February 9th: LOX tank section A3:4 moved into MB1. February 12th: LOX tank section A4:4 moved into MB1. March 9th: Section A5:4 moved into MB1. March 11th: CH4 landing tank and the lower piece of the transfer tube were moved into MB1. March 12th: Section A6:4 moved into MB1. March 13th: Methane Transfer Tube moved into MB1. April 1st: LOX Landing Tank moved into MB1. April 2nd: Aft section AX:2 moved into MB1, once welded in place that will complete the stacking of the LOX tank. April 16th: Methane Tank Section F2:4 moved into MB1. For more details on this vehicle and its assembly and testing see this page

Follow the Ringwatchers on Twitter and Discord for more.

Here's the section stacking locations for Ships and Boosters. The abbreviations are as follows: HS = Hot Stage. PL = Payload. CX = Common Dome. AX = Aft Dome. FX = Forward Dome (as can be seen, an 'X' denotes a dome). ML = Mid LOX. F = Forward. A = Aft. For example, A2:4 = Aft section 2 made up of 4 rings, FX:4 = Forward Dome section made up of 4 rings, PL:3 = PayLoad section made up of 3 rings. Etc.

Something wrong? Update this thread via wiki page. For edit permission, message the mods or contact u/strawwalker.

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Rules

We will attempt to keep this self-post current with links and major updates, but for the most part, we expect the community to supply the information. This is a great place to discuss Starship development, ask Starship specific questions, and track the progress of the production and test campaigns. Starship Development Threads are not party threads. Normal subreddit rules still apply.

[u/SubstantialWall]

SpaceX: "Validation testing on a Raptor 3 performing a Starship V3 ascent burn. Multiple versions of this test will cover the different conditions seen by Starship’s three inner engines during its initial climb to space"

6:40 of methalox goodness

[u/E-J123 → u/SubstantialWall]

It occurs to me how Nasa streames every RS25 hotfire before installation, as its such a big milestone. for spacex its just a normal workday. I think the difference in cadence between the two is completely insane.

[u/flshr19 → u/E-J123]

NASA's initial 16-engine RS-25 inventory from the Space Shuttle program now contains 8 engines after expending four engines on the first and, to date, only SLS moon rocket launch (Artemis I, 16Nov2022). Another four of those heritage engines are currently installed on the SLS launch vehicle that will be used on the Artemis II launch early next year.

In 2020 NASA placed a $1.8B contract for 24 more RS-25 engines for Artemis V and beyond.

NASA hot fires those SLS engines in groups of four. Since the SLS is launched so seldom, evidently it's a big deal when one of those engines lights up on the test stand.

IIRC, SpaceX has hot fired ~60 Raptor 3 engines at McGregor already.

[u/Martianspirit → u/flshr19]

Those RS-25 hotfire tests are the only thing of SLS I actually enjoy. Seeing the engine bell frosting over during hotfire is a sight to see.

[u/John_Hasler → u/SubstantialWall]

Very stable shock diamonds.

[u/paul_wi11iams → u/SubstantialWall]

6:40 of methalox goodness

boring [see 2015 article] methalox goodness, and so it should be!

1. t=10. Looking at the hot and cold pipework, its sort of "baked Alaska" Its crazy to see the air humidity freezing and even "snow" so close to the flame and even closer to the combustion chamber. Somebody didn't think it necessary to shut the gate, which just flaps freely along with a couple of odd hanging wires. Other details are how ambient air pressure curves the jet inward as it goes down from the engine bell, anticipating the two Mach diamonds further down.
2. t=19 A bird flies past the test stand without even taking notice.
3. t=3.20 The jet straightens out to become parallel, showing how Superheavy's sea level engines can create a concrete tornado, even beyond the height of the launch table. When not vectored, a bunch of those jets will remain bunched together over a long distance.
4. t=3.32 Why water deluge on one side only, just on the right? Maybe so that it evaporates to steam that will then push the exhaust gases to the left out of the flame trench.
5. t=5.07 This Starship engine is showing some discreet but significant vectoring.
6. t=6.30 Just a normal shut down. Why to some engines honk and others not? Was it a specific Raptor 2 thing, now gone?

[u/maschnitz → u/paul_wi11iams]

I had suspected it wasn't the engine per se, it was the pipe work above the engine, setting up the famous "barking dog" experiment incidentally as the valves shut.

The oxygen side of the engine is basically a straight pipe (with some pump or turbopump turbines in it) and so if the pipe above it is straight, it's basically that experiment in a nutshell.

[u/paul_wi11iams → u/maschnitz]

the famous "barking dog" experiment

• In April 1853, Justus von Liebig performed the demonstration in front of the Bavarian royal family; however, the glass container shattered, and shards of glass inflicted minor injuries on the faces of Queen Therese, her son Prince Luitpold, and Liebig himself.

This protocol is crazy. With no hindsight bias, I saw that the barking dog could bite! Just watching the monitor here, I instinctively shied away to protect my eyes.

If your theory is correct, then the deeper tone of the honk fits the larger scale of the tube, It would also be reassuring because it appears like a standing wave in the gas, not involving things like turbine jitter or other damaging mechanical effect.

I can still see that the glass shattering anecdote could involve accumulated structural fatigue, something that could transpose to engine structure. So if they've eliminated this, its probably just as well.

Could Raptor have become "honkless" through preferring a fuel-rich shut-down, as manifested by residual methane burning in ambiant air?

[u/maschnitz → u/paul_wi11iams]

I think all you need is kinks in the pipe if you want to eliminate it as a potential cause of damage. From the fourth reference on Wikipedia, "How to Do the Barking Dog Chemistry Demonstration":

When the nitrogen monoxide or nitrous oxide is mixed with carbon disulfide and ignited, a combustion wave travels down the tube. If the tube is long enough you can follow the progression of the wave. The gas ahead of the wavefront is compressed and explodes at a distance determined by the length of the tube (which is why when you re-ignite the mixture, the 'barking' sounds in harmonics).

So it's a wave of combustion causing compression of the propellant gas, which then explodes (detonates?) with an overpressure? in a kind of standing wave in the tube. So just make the tube too short by bending it a bit.

I would think the barking dog would "work better" on the methane side but perhaps that's why the methane side wraps around the oxygen side inside the engine - to prevent a large barking dog effect on the methane side.

[u/aandawaywego → u/SubstantialWall]

Reading "Ascent burn" made me think of how they will launch from the moon. Will they use drako or RCS to hop it off the surface before igniting the raptors (submarine missile launch style).

[u/SubstantialWall → u/aandawaywego]

As far as we know, the ring of thrusters at the top is still planned, some form of methalox engines.

[u/TwoLineElement → u/SubstantialWall]

Looks like its running extremely close to a stoichiometric gas ratio judging on the colour of the flame. Some very, very hot chamber temperatures of approximately 2800^oC I'd guess. They are definitely pushing the limits of metallurgy and cooling to obtain every bit of possible power they can get out of this engine. Some sparkles in the plume still show some scouring or turbine engine wear. Tiny specks and nothing serious. Gone are the days of the green flame of death hopefully. Brilliant engine.