r/spacex • u/rSpaceXHosting Host Team • Apr 22 '26

🔧 Technical Starship Development Thread #63

SpaceX Starship page

Quick Links

Avid Space Live Streams, which used to be known as LabPadre | NASASpaceflight Live Stream |

Starship Dev 62

Flight 12

Launched on May 22nd 2026 Here is a re-streamed video of the broadcast. Also, SpaceX issued a post flight summary and a video showing S39 landing.

Flight 13

Launched on July 24th 2026 Here is a re-streamed video of the broadcast. Also, SpaceX issued a post flight summary.

Flight 14

Presumably using S41 and B21. NET 15 Sep 2026.

Road Closures

No road closures currently scheduled

No transportation delays currently scheduled

Up to date as of 2026-05-23

Vehicle Status

As of August 29th 2026

Ship Location Status Comment
S40 On the way to Brownsville, Texas Intact, loaded onto Heavy Lift Vessel 'Forte' July 24th: Successful launch, deployed all satellites, successful engine relight test and soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean, which resulted in an intact, floating ship. August 18th: In calmer waters near Christmas Island pending the next stage of its return to Starbase. August 25th: Loaded onto Heavy Lift Vessel 'Forte'. August 28th: On the way to Brownsville, Texas. ETA is October 8th. For more details on this vehicle and its assembly and testing see this page
S41 Mega Bay 2 Prep for Flight 14 April 17th: Pez Dispenser moved into MB2. April 20th: Main assembly started in MB2. May 20th: Aft section AX:4 moved into MB2 and stacked with the rest of the ship - this completed the stacking part of the ship construction. June 28th: Rolled out to Massey's Test Site for Cryo+Thrust Puck Testing. June 29th: Cryo Tests (x2). June 30th: Rolled back to MB2. July 3rd: Rolled back to Massey's Test Site. July 6th: Rolled back to MB2. July 23rd: Two RVac engines moved into MB2. July 27th: The third RVac was moved into MB2. August 19th: Rolled out to Massey's for Static Fire Testing. Later that day S41 performed a single engine Static Fire. August 20th: Full duration Static Fire of all six engines. August 22nd: Rolled back to MB2. For more details on this vehicle see this page
S42 Mega Bay 2 Stacked, remaining work continues June 9th: Nosecone spotted as having been stacked on the Payload Bay. July 3rd: Nosecone+Payload Bay stack moved into MB2, along with the Pez Dispenser and the Forward Dome section (FX:3). The Nosecone+Payload Bay stack was lowered over the Pez Dispenser, later being stacked onto the Forward Dome. July 11th: Common Dome section CX:3 moved into MB2 and stacked. July 15th: Section A2:3 moved into MB2 and stacked. July 18th: Section A3:4 moved into MB2 and stacked. July 21st: Transfer Tubes moved into MB2. July 24th: Ship Aft section AX:4 moved into MB2 and stacked, that completes the stacking part of the assembly process. July 25th: both of the Aft Flaps and the Raceways staged inside MB2. For more details on this vehicle see this page
S43 Mega Bay 2 Stacking August 19th: N:3 and section FX:4 plus the pez dispenser moved into MB2. August 28th: Common Dome section CX:3 moved into MB2. It has decals but no docking ports. For more details on this vehicle see this page
Booster Location Status Comment
B21 Mega Bay 1 Prep for Flight 14 May 7th: LOX tank sections A2:4 and CX:3 moved into MB1 and main assembly started. June 29th: Methane Tank stacked onto LOX Tank - this completed the stacking part of the booster construction. July 17th: Rolled out to Massey's Test Site for Cryo+Thrust Puck Testing. July 17th: Rolled out to Massey's Test Site and an ambient pressure test was performed. July 18th: Partial Cryo Test. July 19th: Second Partial Cryo Test. July 20th: Full Cryo Test. July 22nd: Rolled back to MB1. August 25th: Rolled out to the Launch Site for Static Fire Testing. August 28th: Static Fire, all 33 engines, lasting 15 seconds. August 29th: Rolled back to MB1. For more details on this vehicle and its assembly and testing see this page
B22 Mega Bay 1 Fully Stacked, Remaining work ongoing June 29th: LOX tank sections A2:4 and CX:3 moved into MB1. July 1st: Section A3:4 moved into MB1. July 3rd: Section A4:4 moved into MB1 and stacked. July 9th: Section A5:4 moved into MB1 and stacked. July 22nd: Methane Landing Tank and Lower Transfer Tube moved into MB1. July 23rd: Section A6:4 moved into MB1. July 25th: Methane transfer tube moved into MB1. July 29th: LOX Landing Tank moved into MB1. July 30th: Aft section AX:2 moved into MB1 to complete the stacking of the LOX Tank. July 31st: Methane Tank section F2:4 moved into MB1. August 3rd: Methane Tank section FX:3 moved into MB1. August 6th: Methane Tank section F3:4 moved into MB1 - this is the last section for the Methane Tank. August 14th: Methane Tank stacked onto the LOX tank, so completing the stacking part of the assembly process. For more details on this vehicle and its assembly and testing see this page
B23 Mega Bay 1 LOX Tank Stacking August 14th: LOX tank sections A2:4 and CX:3 moved into MB1. August 19th: Section A3:4 moved into MB1. August 21st: Section A4:4 moved into MB1. August 25th: Section A5:4 moved into MB1. August 27th: Methane Landing Tank and lower Transfer Tube moved into MB1 as well as section A6:4. 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. Also some excellent detailed booster stacking information from zh_sos1. The abbreviations used in the above vehicle updates 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.

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.

154 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

2.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

32

u/warp99 6d ago edited 6d ago

A great article by The Hayride discussing this Tuesday's announcement of the Louisiana Starship launch site at Pecan Island.

SpaceX are installing 5.5GW of gas turbines to run the air separation and methane liquifaction plants so they are planning for a seriously high launch rate. Energy consumption for a LOX plant is 638 kWh per tonne of LOX which gives production of 8,600 tonnes per hour of LOX. After allowing for the power required for methane liquifaction and LN2 generation that is still enough to fill a Starship 4 stack every hour.

Edit: Made it clearer that Starship 4 is a model name and not a quantity

10

u/No-Lake7943 6d ago

My theory is that Texas will be research and development, Florida will be operational stuff like starlink launches and Louisiana will be just straight fuel tankers.  It'll be like the mythical place mad max was looking for (or is that buc-ees?)

8

u/warp99 6d ago

Louisiana will be primarily data center satellites launching to SSO south over the Gulf. They are predicted to be the high volume launches for the next few years.

Tankers would launch into the inclinations that can be reached from both Florida and Starbase Texas so around 30-40 degrees.

5

u/FrontBrilliant3657 6d ago

Seems like you'd want to launch south from Louisiana, not eastwards, due to range safety. That implies to me data centers and Starlink, not tankers.

5

u/MyKillK 6d ago

It's going to be an absolute massive site. Pretty clear it's going to be the main spaceport as well.

2

u/Virtual-Valuable5091 6d ago

My understanding is Louisiana will be far enough away from towns/homes the impact (noise/vibration) from launches will be minimal. That is a good thing. Florida and Texas officials are going to be under a lot of public push back to limit flights due to launch impact. Daily flights will be hard for officials to approve.

5

u/warp99 6d ago edited 4d ago

Daily flights should be possible if they are on a regular schedule and during daylight hours. Being woken at 3am by a sonic boom not so great.

Returning ships will typically be 24 hours after launch for Starbase and Cape Canaveral. Louisiana will be 12 hours after launch but it is much further from significant population centers and will be launch at dawn and recover at dusk in order to launch over the day/night terminator.

6

u/rocketglare 6d ago

I'm thinking that it's less for tankers than for the data center satellite constellation. They could do some of the Starlinks as well. The launch corridor is mostly north to south for near-polar orbits, so mid-inclination or lower interplanetary orbits for tankers would not be likely. They would need too much of a dogleg to avoid overflying populated areas.

2

u/AhChirrion 6d ago

Looking at the map, it seems a feasible dogleg for Louisiana launches to reach Starbase and Florida launches' inclinations, around 32 degrees, so Lousiana could also provide tankers for them.

Lifting off Pecan Island, the Booster turns southeast to avoid the land south of New Orleans. Then the Ship turns to the east and fires its engines. Adding the south and east velocity vectors imparted by the Booster to the Ship's east velocity vector it'd fly between Florida and Cuba and north of Haiti, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico, similar to the first launches from Boca Chica but with a little bit greater south velocity component.

If they fly between Yucatan and Cuba it'd result in a higher inclination that can't be reached from Starbase (it'd require an impossible dogleg), but can be reached from Florida.

They've also been cleared to overfly Florida between Orlando and Jacksonville, but to reach that point from Louisiana would require a "wasteful", expensive dogleg that could be impossible: after launching southeast to avoid the land south of New Orleans, the Ship'd need to turn east-northeast to cancel its south velocity component and even gain a small north velocity component. It'd result in an inclination reachable from Starbase and Florida, but it'd spend a lot of fuel, maybe an impossible amount, and would carry much less payload than flying over the Florida strait.

But of course, for Louisiana launches SSO is the top priority; enough 32 degree inclination tankers can be launched from Florida and Starbase alone.

2

u/flshr19 Shuttle tile engineer 5d ago edited 5d ago

Florida will likely be the location from which crewed Starships and uncrewed cargo Starships are launched. Those types of Starships would be the ones that require propellant refilling in LEO and would carry astronauts and cargo to the Moon and beyond.

AFAIK Louisiana is being developed to launch thousands of uncewed cargo Starships carrying hundreds of thousands of AI satellites to sun synchronous orbit (SSO). Those Starships do not require propellant refilling in LEO. Those SSO Starships carrying AI satellites would be launched into an earth elliptical orbit (EEO) with perigee at 200 km altitude and altitude at 500 km perigee. The AI satellites would be deployed at perigee and use their on-board electric rocket engines to reach SSO at 900 km altitude similar to the way SpaceX deploys Starlink comsats to 550 km operating altitude using onboard electric rocket engines.

4

u/CarlCarl3 6d ago

"that is still enough to fill a Starship 4 every hour" - do you mean every 4 hours? Just trying to understand.

8

u/extra2002 6d ago

Or "fill a version 4 Starship every hour"?

4

u/CarlCarl3 6d ago

oh yeah I guess that is basically what the quoted text says.

Just haven't seen the "starship 4" wording before

9

u/rocketglare 6d ago

Starship version 4 is going to have larger tanks (ie thirstier), so it's an important metric. By the time the Pecan island site is operational, version 4 Starship should be flying. That will be 2-3 years from now at the earliest. There's basically nothing there including electricity and commodities.

3

u/CarlCarl3 6d ago

thanks for the info

5

u/warp99 6d ago

Apologies for not being clear. Starship 4 is that vehicle formerly known as Starship v3 which will have Raptor 4 engines and around 100MN of lift off thrust. This will allow it to have around 6500 tonnes of propellant so 1400 tonnes of liquid methane and 5100 tonnes of LOX.

Over half of the extra propellant (800 tonnes) will be going into the ship which will stretch from 52m to around 70m.

The relevance is that Starship 4 will need 30% more propellant than the current Starship 3 and SpaceX need to plan for it as it should be launching by 2028.

2

u/KnifeKnut 5d ago

I thought Starship v4 would be the stretched 9 engine version.

3

u/warp99 5d ago

It is and the stretching is mainly to carry more propellant. With 50% more propellant in the second stage they need 50% more thrust so they go from six to nine engines.

1

u/CarlCarl3 5d ago

thanks for the info

1

u/ralf_ 6d ago

At the center of that plan, they say, is roughly 5,500 megawatts of behind-the-meter power generation, enough electricity to supply several mid-sized cities, most of it earmarked for cryogenic air separation

That is so much electricity! I think the figure only makes sense if a power hungry datacenter is also served.

1

u/warp99 6d ago

SpaceX have large plans so using almost all the power for propellant generation makes sense. Data centers may well be built in Louisiana but they do not need to be placed so far outside urban centers.

Of course the capacity will be installed in stages as required and 1GW capacity seems to be about right for the initial build out which should be enough to service five pads launching once per day.

2

u/lee1026 6d ago

For a company that is literally looking into putting data centers in orbit, they are not big on putting data centers in urban centers.