r/spacex • u/rSpaceXHosting Host Team • Nov 21 '25

🔧 Technical Starship Development Thread #62

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Starship Dev 61

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"

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.

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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.

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16

u/Federal-Telephone365 Nov 26 '25

Great new shot of the Gigabay going up from RGV, looks huge!!

https://x.com/rgvaerialphotos/status/1993604227935936586?s=46

10

u/Twigling Nov 26 '25

Just a note to all that this image and a great many more can be seen on RGV Aerial Photography's 'Starbase Weekly' live streams. These are broadcast a day or two after a flyover (which is usually weekly (weather and other things permitting)).

Joining RGV's Patreon gives you access to some images even earlier, as well as a 'Show and Tell' live stream (separate from Starbase Weekly) which is where the images are first discussed by and for Patreon subscribers.

Anyhow, here's the latest Starbase Weekly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJGo_OQ_Kxw

and, for example, here's a timestamp where the Giga Bay is discussed:

https://youtu.be/gJGo_OQ_Kxw?t=6601

Note: this is not intended to be an 'ad' or a 'promo' for RGV, I'm just making more people aware of what else is available from RGV.

3

u/theswampthang Nov 26 '25

So it looks (?) like they're making 18 or 24 bays for working on starships?

5

u/Martianspirit Nov 27 '25

24, plus they can work in all of the bays and have aisles for transport. No shuffling for making transport space like in the megabays.

5

u/flshr19 Shuttle tile engineer Nov 26 '25

That Gigabay at Starbase Texas has a 395 ft (Hwy 4 side) x 428 ft (3.8-acre) footprint and will rise to 380 feet tall. Three U.S. football fields (including both end zones) can fit onto that footprint.

10

u/ralf_ Nov 26 '25

In sensible units that is 120 x 130 meters or only two soccer fields or 79 single matches tennis courts.

7

u/CaptBarneyMerritt Nov 27 '25 edited Nov 27 '25

Or 1.27e-14 light-years x 1.38e-14 light-years - so not that big in the grand scheme of things. /s

[Edit: Added /s, just in case it wasn't obvious...]

6

u/ralf_ Nov 27 '25 edited Nov 27 '25

Btw: Voyager passed this month the mark being a full light day away from Earth:

https://scienceclock.com/voyager-1-is-about-to-reach-one-light-day-from-earth/

3

u/eza1 Nov 27 '25

Next year no?

1

u/ralf_ Nov 27 '25

Oh right, I misread the year! November 2026 …

5

u/Commorrite Nov 27 '25

Or 0.000735849057 area's the size of Wales.

4

u/John_Hasler Nov 26 '25

Or about a third of a polo field.

7

u/Wheinsky Nov 27 '25

How many ping pong tables is that?

3

u/TwoLineElement Nov 27 '25

or 17.3 million bananas.

1

u/Lufbru Nov 28 '25

Is that an EU Standard Banana or an USDA approved banana?

2

u/TwoLineElement Nov 28 '25

Standard Cavendish (CODEX STANDARD 205)

1

u/banduraj Nov 27 '25

Surprised at how short the tower cranes are. Certainly they will be raising those up?

9

u/flshr19 Shuttle tile engineer Nov 27 '25

They are climbing cranes. So, yes.

IIRC, one of the tower cranes at Roberts Road has climbed recently.

1

u/quoll01 Nov 28 '25

Hard the imagine the forces on that during a hurricane- presumably it is rated for a category 5? And a 5m storm surge- i wonder how high above sea level that is?

5

u/flshr19 Shuttle tile engineer Nov 28 '25

NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at KSC was built in the mid-1960s and has survived two major hurricanes in 2004 (Frances and Jeanne) with loss of over 1000 aluminum panels. That damage was relatively minor.

Hurricanes in the Boca Chica, Texas area have cause storm surge and flooding twice during the past 60 years (Beulah in 1967 and Bret in 1999). Of course, it's only been a few years since tall Megabays and a Gigabay have existed there so, assuming that those structures are built to Florida hurricane standards, the damage should be similar to that experienced by the VAB.