The 17th of April is the current date set for the first flight test of Starship, pending regulatory approval.
SpaceX has confirmed the 17th of April as the big day for Starship Super-Heavy’s orbital debut. SpaceX has updated the ‘Launches’ section on its site, and Starship Super-Heavy along with the date of April 17th have been added under the ‘Upcoming’ subsection.
Official confirmation from the SpaceX website: Starship to launch on the 17th of April.
So, now what? Now wait, obviously. SpaceX had planned to conduct a Wet Dress Rehearsal on the 10th of April, with a backup of the 11th, but the road closures for those tests would be canceled, suggesting no major testing would take place.
The company would, on the 11th of April, confirm on its Twitter account, that Starship would proceed straight to launch and skip the WDR. To date, the Starship Super-Heavy full stack has completed one successful WDR.
In an earlier post, I had noted that B7 would be due to perform a final static fire, lighting all its engines at full power. Recall that the last static fire fired 31 engines of 33, the other two having shut down just before and during the event. It is clear now, that I was wrong. The next time B7 lights up its engines will be moments before it hopefully carries S24 to orbit.
It is worth noting that this date could slip. It being on the official SpaceX website sure inspires confidence, but it could still slip. The actual launch itself could take place later than the 17th, as they may abort several times before SpaceX is confident enough to light the candle. The likelihood of that is high, given that this will be the first ever orbital launch attempt for this vehicle.
But with all that said, these are truly exciting times. It has been coming for a long time. Now, we wait.🚀
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SpaceX says third week of April current target for a Starship launch, pending regulatory approval.
After days of speculation and confusion ignited by an advisory released by the FAA, which stated that SpaceX would launch Starship on April 10th, SpaceX has cleared the air with a single tweet (it’s not as dramatic as that sounded tbh).
SpaceX confirms timeframe for Starship Super-Heavy activities leading to the launch attempt, potentially in late April.
The company tweeted that it was going to perform a Wet Dress Rehearsal on the full stack (S24/B7) on Monday, April 10th. Assuming all goes well with that, a launch attempt would then follow roughly a week after, pending regulatory approval.
This is right in line with what SpaceX CEO Elon Musk revealed to be a rough estimate of the launch of Starship Super-Heavy back in March. Back then, he said SpaceX should be ready for a launch attempt towards the end of April, provided the FAA issues out the launch license timely.
So, what does all this mean? Well, it still is NOT a solid confirmation of a launch date. We only have a rough timeframe at the moment, and no date. But it gives much confidence that it comes from SpaceX itself. It has been quite a noisy week of speculation in the spaceflight, particularly the Starship community. Yes, that’s a thing.
Partly, I do not blame them. I mean, the advisory came from the FAA. And we’re all pumped right now and all want to see that thing fly. But I think we should all exercise caution when it comes to potential launch dates and so on. If it is not coming from SpaceX, Elon Musk himself or an objectively reliable source, you probably want to take that with a packet of salt. Even if SpaceX or Musk confirms anything, it should still be kept in mind that dates could still slip. These are the very early days of this program after all.
So after that SpaceX confirmation, eyes will be on the WDR next week on Monday. Its success will mean a highly likely launch sometime around late April if SpaceX get that launch license in time. The anticipation once again builds and builds.🚀
Do you think we will see Starship launch this month? Comment below!🚀
According to a recently-released FAA advisory SpaceX could be attempting the first ever Starship Super-Heavy orbital launch on the 10th of April.
Monday the 10th of April is just around the corner, and so could be the first ever flight test of Starship Super-Heavy. This is after an advisory published by the FAA on its site revealed the 10th of April as the first attempt date for the Starship launch.
FAA advisory indicating a Starship launch date of April 10th with backups of April 11th and 12th.
It is worth nothing that there has not been any direct confirmation from SpaceX CEO Elon Musk (and there usually is) about this, or from SpaceX itself.
But that hasn’t stopped the hype from building. So if SpaceX is launching Starship on Monday, what’s the status of the launch site and the vehicles?
Booster 7 B7 was recently lifted back onto the OLM after most of the work that was being done on it, seemed complete. On April 3rd it underwent what NSF’s Chris Bergin called a booster Wet Dress Rehearsal, as both its methane and oxygen tanks were filled to the brim. Around half an hour passed before it was finally detanked. It still rests on the mount at the time of writing.
[IMAGE via LabPadre YouTube Livestream] – B7 cryo-tested on April 3rd.
Ship 24 On April 1st S24 was moved from the rocket garden back to the launch complex. At the time of writing it had been moved to near the chopsticks and currently rests between them. A lift is expected in the next coming days to compete the full stack.
[IMAGE via NASA SPACEFLIGHT YouTube Livestream] – Ship 24 moved into the chopsticks ahead of expected lift.
The OLM The OLM has been completely covered with steel panels for the most part, while some fuel pipes running below the table itself around the leg extensions remain exposed. It isn’t clear what work was being done on the inner side of the table, but the presence of the booster on top of it obviously suggest the major work is likely done, although some scaffolding still remains on top of it.
Note:
It should be noted that no official confirmation has been issued from/by SpaceX nor Musk. SpaceX still awaits the launch license from the FAA, without which no launch will take place.
As things stand, April 10th is tentative at best, and whatever happens between now and Sunday should give us a decent clue as to what to expect on Monday.
When can we expect a Ship 24/ Booster 7 final full stack?
[IMAGE: Starship Gazer via Twitter] – Starship 24 rolls to the orbital launch pad, hopefully for the last time.
SpaceX rolled out Ship 24 on April 1st, after a lengthy stay at the rocket garden.
The rocket was parked there to make space (🙄) at the launch complex, which was buzzing with vehicles. S25 had cryo tests there before it was moved to the Massey’s site, and S26 also spent some time on one of the suborbital launch pads.
The question now, on everybody’s minds is when we might actually see S24/B7 stacked, as that could possibly mean a launch in the very near future.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says a Starship 24 lift is still days out.
If you’re wondering what that actually means, so am I. But if you’ll allow me to speculate, what that could possibly mean is that there are some processes or tests that SpaceX might need to conduct in the near future, and success or failure with those could then determine the timeframe for S24/B7 operations.
There is, at the time of writing, NO set launch date for Starship Super-Heavy, and no details about the FAA launch license (which SpaceX cannot launch Starship without) have been disclosed. A late-April launch doesn’t seem off the table yet though.
When do you think Starship Super-Heavy will launch? April? First half of 2023? Comment below.🚀 Thanks for popping in, I’ll see you soon!
Only some hardware upgrades and an FAA green light stand between SpaceX and a Starship Super Heavy launch, which may be the biggest of the year.
The Starship Super Heavy stack is set to make its debut this year, launching from SpaceX’s launch site in Starbase – Boca Chica, Texas. The site has been undergoing robust upgrades, with crews buzzing around it 24/7.
This follows a successful Wet Dress Rehearsal of the full stack (Ship 24 and Booster 7), and the historic 31-engine, ~50% throttle static fire of B7 back in February.
[IMAGE: SPACEX via Twitter] – Booster 7’s 31-engine static fire in February.
The upgrades include external and internal shielding of the orbital launch table, which sits on top of six vertical pillars, collectively referred to as the Orbital Launch Mount (OLM). The OLM is one of the most technically complex structures in the Starbase launch site, as it has many functions it must perform simultaneously. One of those is fueling the first stage of the rocket while holding the full stack down until the last seconds of the countdown. That is why it houses complex networks of piping, which need to be protected.
[IMAGE: Jenny Hautmann/ Supercluster HQ via Twitter, cropped here] – Orbital launch mount receiving protective outer panels.
SpaceX began adding thick steel panels to the outer-facing side of the launch table a few weeks ago. This process is now complete, the majority of the internal structures and key components such as the fueling pipes have been covered, with some pipes still partially exposed. These are expected to be covered as well over the next coming weeks.
Cladding had also begun to be added to the Orbital Launch Integration Tower (OLIT) months earlier, but there hasn’t been much movement in that regard. The cladding protection is worth a mention though, at least for the two sides closet to the launch mount, thus exposed to 33 roaring raptor engines when the vehicle does launch and leaves the pad, because it would seem like a necessary upgrade so to protect the pipework that runs up the tower to the middle section housing the Starship fueling arm, or Starship Quick-Disconnect arm (SQD arm).
[IMAGE: RGV AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY via Twitter] – Orbital Launch Tower cladding protection. Four levels had been covered at the time of writing.
Ship 24 has also been undergoing some minor upgrades of its own while parked at the rocket garden. We have seen its Thermal Protection System (TPS) or heat shield getting worked on, with the crane attachment points located on its nosecone, being removed and the remaining gaps filled with TPS tiles, completing its heat shield.
[IMAGE via LabPadre YouTube Livestream] – Ship 24’s heat shield looking complete. The white tape and coverings are where the crane lifting points used to be.
A new jig had been spotted some weeks ago at the Starbase launch complex which is believed to be the replacement for the crane attachment points for ship lifting operations.
[IMAGE: STARSHIP GAZER via Twitter] – New ship lifting jig spotted at Starbase.
This jig will utilize the lifting points right below the forward flaps of the ship, a crane will then be attached to it for lifting. The OLIT chopsticks are currently used to lift the ships atop the boosters for full stack operations, so this new jig will likely be used in the future to move the ships around the launch site, and for lifting onto and off the suborbital pads.
[IMAGE: RGV AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY, EDITING: STARSHIP GAZER, via Twitter] – A visualization of how the new ship lifting jig will work.
Having completed its static fire campaign weeks ago, the completion of S24’s heat shield work will mean S24 will be ready to roll back to the launch site, hopefully for the last time, to wait for the big day.
As for B7, it was lifted off the launch table some weeks ago, to make way for SpaceX crews to work on the inner-side of the structure. That is quite literally the most action it has seen since its ground-breaking static fire. It was lifted back onto the OLM on the 29th of March.
The chopsticks, one of whose current purposes is to lift and stack/ de-stack the vehicles had been getting worked on as well, with scaffolding set up on them. It is unclear exactly what work the crews had been doing on them, but the scaffolding had begun being removed recently, suggesting whatever the work was, is now finished.
Besides these mentioned and known upgrades still ongoing, and of course the ones we cannot see, SpaceX still awaits a launch license from the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) and there really is no set timeframe for that, at least not that is publicly known. The company’s CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter that should there be no unexpected delays with the FAA, Starship Super Heavy may be ready to take to the skies in late April.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk hopeful of a late-April launch of Starship.
SpaceX is clearly progressing as carefully as it can to avoid a rapid unscheduled disassembly (RUD) on the pad, as Musk has mentioned on Twitter earlier this year. Recent activity and pace of work in the launch site however, suggest that we may now be close to what may turn out to be the biggest launch of 2023.
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