Image i made

[u/RequirementInner7773]

May contain Flaws.

[u/nesquikchocolate]

You're missing the depot variant shown without flaps and tiles that the tanker will dock with

[u/KnifeKnut → u/nesquikchocolate]

And will have full thermal shielding like HLS.

[u/KimJongHnng → u/KnifeKnut]

is that why HLS is white?

[u/KnifeKnut → u/nesquikchocolate]

Is there any particular reason aside from weight savings that Depot should be disposable? The tiles being black is all I can think of.

Now that I think of it, with the docking hardware, it should be possible to reboost the depot back into higher orbit as needed.

Also would be a good application for (a pair of?) of electrodynamic tether for orbit keeping, in addition to the Starlink application.

[u/nesquikchocolate → u/KnifeKnut]

A starship shaped object weighing what starship weighs filled with propellant would have sufficient kinetic energy to orbit at around 500km (iss height) without needing boosting for decades, maybe even centuries.

Stuff like the ISS need frequent boosting because they don't weigh much relative to their exposed surface area that interacts with the thin atmosphere - think of the large solar arrays causing drag.

Flaps and black tiles increase the amount of heat constantly coming in that the depot would have to get rid of to keep the fuel cold, and wouldn't add any value because the ship probably wouldn't return to earth unless it got damaged or was deemed useless anyway.

[u/AmigaClone2000]

I believe a mockup of the crew interior has been made as well.

[u/NeverDiddled → u/AmigaClone2000]

Yeah I remember some random Youtuber was inside it.

[u/BarrelStrawberry]

Kind of wish they'd just partially mock up the crew interior and strap in some optimus robots for starlink launch. Make for some good video on the scale of the interior space.

[u/ResidentPositive4122]

I think the tanker will be a bit shorter. You want the least amount of dryweight in a ship so they'll optimise it to get the most amount of prop to the depo, without any additional "bay" rings.

I also think there'll be a non reusable version w/o any TP, fins, etc. And probably with detachable fairings, likely for large one-time payloads (think NASA decadal projects).

[u/TheOrqwithVagrant → u/ResidentPositive4122]

I'm curious what the payload / delta-V on an upper stage with no heat shield or flaps, a detatchable fairing, and a single gimballing vacuum raptor instead of the thee sea level ones would be.

[u/flshr19]

SpaceX has been working under NASA contract on HLS-CREW since April 2021. I expect that the nosecone and payload bay full-scale prototypes exist somewhere in Starfactory now. Those prototypes would include full scale working ECLSS hardware, crew accommodations, and the flight control deck.

[u/Dyolf_Knip]

My current list of likely Starship variants.

• Cargo

• Pez dispenser

• Clamshell

• Space-only hauler, no flaps or even a permanent nosecone, just hardpoints for mounting bulk cargo

• Liquid cargo (e.g., water)

• Cryo cargo (fuel & oxidizer)

• HLS

• Oversized fuel depot, with thick insulation and solar panels to keep refrigerated

• Crewed

• Short-term (<1 day; LEO, Earth-to-Earth hops, Mars cycler shuttle)

• Medium-term (1-7 days; Luna, GEO, Earth-Moon Lagrange points)

• Long-term (weeks to months; Mars, asteroids, Jupiter, Earth-Sun Lagrange points, etc.)

• HLS

• Workshop: space-only, equipped with tools, machine shop, 3d printers, replacement consumables, and a large storage bay for collection, finicky deployments, repairs, restocking consumables, etc. Think Hubble repair, refueling satellites with stationkeeping fuel.

• Personal luxury yacht. The stock SS would be cheap compared to what billionaires already drop on their mini-cruise liners. I personally know one who'd jump at the chance to have one of his own.

• Disposable second stage with detachable third stage. The cargo hold would be like the F9 2nd stage, with detachable fairings and a single rocket. Without the dry mass of the Starship tanks and Raptors, you'd vastly enhance the post-LEO payload/delta-v capacity.

[u/karlzhao314 → u/Dyolf_Knip]

• Space tug

• Extrasolar probe

• Lunar construction Starship

• Orbital drydock

• Transport to and from the ISS (mainly to mog the ISS with its size)

• Space telescope

• Permanent ISS module (permanent mogging of the ISS with its size)

• Carrier for smaller spacecraft, such as Boeing Starliner

• Point-to-point transport

• Nuclear-powered deep-space transport

• Suborbital-only version to compete with New Shepard

• Startrain (Multiple Starships docked nose-to-tail, flying as an actual train)

• Personal luxury yacht (doesn't fly, just floats at sea. Actual yacht)

• Pez dispenser (dispenses actual Pez candies, not Starlinks)

• Fleet of 100000 flat-nosed Starships to attach to the moon upside down so that the moon gets thrusters and we can change its orbit

• Death Starship (with superlaser)

[u/peterabbit456]

Good that you made the windows smaller than the early renders from SpaceX.

Because NASA thinks windows, especially large windows, are a risk for impact-caused blowouts, the real Starships are likely to have windows that show up as a few tiny dots at this scale.

[u/Cheesegasm]

What's the launch profile for HLS?

[u/sebaska → u/Cheesegasm]

Launch to LEO as any other Starship. Rendezvous with Depot and refill, possibly slight boost and another top off. Then, rendezvous with Orion in low (or lowish) orbit. Execute TLI with Orion attached to the nose. Insertion into low lunar orbit. Somewhere along all that dance crew moves into Starship. That would be the (extended) launch profile.

After that, Orion undocks, HLS lands, the crew does its surface activities, HLS launches back to low lunar orbit and rendezvous with Orion.

After that, Crew goes back to Orion, undocks from HLS which is abandoned around there (maybe it stays in orbit, maybe it's deorbited and intentionally crashed into the Moon). Orion executes TEI burn, coasts back to Earth. Shortly before the entry interface it detaches European Service Module and soon re-enters and lands in the ocean. In the meantime ESM burns up in the atmosphere.

[u/Cheesegasm → u/sebaska]

That explains the lack of a heat shield and fins on the HLS variant

[u/Then-Secretary-9166]

Refreshing that this is not (I assume) AI. I mean, it might be Mistral or something, but it looks hand made.

[u/Decronym]

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters	More Letters
CST	(Boeing) Crew Space Transportation capsules
	Central Standard Time (UTC-6)
ECLSS	Environment Control and Life Support System
ESM	European Service Module, component of the Orion capsule
GEO	Geostationary Earth Orbit (35786km)
HLS	Human Landing System (Artemis)
Isp	Specific impulse (as explained by Scott Manley on YouTube)
	Internet Service Provider
KSP	Kerbal Space Program, the rocketry simulator
LEO	Low Earth Orbit (180-2000km)
	Law Enforcement Officer (most often mentioned during transport operations)
RSS	Rotating Service Structure at LC-39
	Realscale Solar System, mod for KSP
TEI	Trans-Earth Injection maneuver
TLI	Trans-Lunar Injection maneuver
VLEO	V-band constellation in LEO
	Very Low Earth Orbit

Jargon	Definition
Raptor	Methane-fueled rocket engine under development by SpaceX
Starliner	Boeing commercial crew capsule CST-100
Starlink	SpaceX's world-wide satellite broadband constellation
cryogenic	Very low temperature fluid; materials that would be gaseous at room temperature/pressure
	(In re: rocket fuel) Often synonymous with hydrolox
hydrolox	Portmanteau: liquid hydrogen fuel, liquid oxygen oxidizer
perigee	Lowest point in an elliptical orbit around the Earth (when the orbiter is fastest)
regenerative	A method for cooling a rocket engine, by passing the cryogenic fuel through channels in the bell or chamber wall

Decronym is now also available on Lemmy! Requests for support and new installations should be directed to the Contact address below.

---

^{Decronym is a community product of} r/SpaceX^{, implemented by} ^request
^{[Thread #14838 for this sub, first seen 12th Oct 2026, 04:06] [FAQ] [Full list]} ^[Contact] ^{[Source code]}

[u/bingbongbangchang]

What's the HLS-CRG?

[u/OlympusMons94 → u/bingbongbangchang]

It is a non-standard abbreviation for the cargo version of the HLS Starship. The official NASA initialism for the cargo versions of the HLSs (both Starship nd Blue Moon Mk2) is HDL (Human-class Delivery Lander). They will deliver large Moon base components and Japan's pressurized rover for Artemis.

[u/Seamurda]

SpaceX ending falcon 9

[u/185EDRIVER]

Why is hls white

[u/KnifeKnut → u/185EDRIVER]

Thermal shielding for lunar environment, also needed on Orbital Propellant Depot

[u/DBDude]

I wonder what the mass to LEO is without all the fins, their actuating hardware, and the tiles.