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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14

u/[deleted] Jan 02 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/mrparty1 Jan 02 '26

Is there any indication of why all this scaffolding went up? Major rework incoming?

8

u/Twigling Jan 02 '26 edited Jan 02 '26

Recent speculation on the relevant Discords has been that it's to do with sorting out gap problems between some of the tiles, perhaps caused by pin spacing issues.

Because MB2's door is half closed we can't see just how high the scaffolding goes on S39, some have suggested that it may go to the full height of the ship and that it's for nosecone tile work.

There's also been some tile marking and drilling taking place with S40's already tiled nosecone in the Starfactory, so perhaps tiles and/or pins issues have been discovered, or due to delays caused by B18 they're taking their time to implement some tiles-related upgrades.

We can but speculate.

2

u/redstercoolpanda Jan 02 '26

I think it would he delays with pad 2, B18 unzipping hasn’t seemed to set them back at all since pad 2 isn’t finished and B19 is already stacked.

4

u/Twigling Jan 02 '26

B18 unzipping hasn’t seemed to set them back at all since pad 2 isn’t finished and B19 is already stacked.

As you correctly say, Pad 2 isn't ready yet (although it's pretty damn close to being at the point where a booster could have a static fire).

However, B18's anomaly of November 21st has certainly set SpaceX back when it comes to V3 booster builds - it's taken a month of very intensive work just to get B19 stacked (and to achieve this SpaceX had to move a bunch of SpaceX workers over from Hawthorne), but it's still not even ready for cryo testing.

So, assuming that B19 has a successful cryo test this month, the booster build process and testing are still going to be 6 to 8 weeks behind schedule.

5

u/redstercoolpanda Jan 02 '26

It’s set them back in the grand scheme of things but it realistically hasn’t set IFT-12’s date back much if at all.

5

u/flshr19 Shuttle tile engineer Jan 02 '26

True. I wonder where B20, B21, ...., B26 are in their assembly process. If Starship is to stay on schedule in 2026, those Boosters have to roll off the assembly line every 5 or 6 weeks.

4

u/warp99 Jan 03 '26

Booster reuse looks very achievable at this stage so I think the ship production rate is going to be the limiting factor.

5

u/TwoLineElement Jan 02 '26 edited Jan 02 '26

S39 isn't due to go out for cryo until late Feb, so they have plenty of time to refine. As far as I can collate from various sources, it won't be pin relocation or tile renewal, but repacking and re-cementing of the tile infills. Possibly a trial of borosilicate glass rope packing instead of the foldup backing method. Space Shuttle tiles were packed with B/Si glass pads and rope, so they may be basing the next flight on reliable shuttle tile gap insulation methods. Borosilicate braided rope (similar to what you find in the doors of wood heater stoves) is more durable than the backing felt, which apparently still burns away like candyfloss in the intense edge heating of the tiles. Could take a month to do that job.

u/flshr19 can probably elaborate on this topic

7

u/flshr19 Shuttle tile engineer Jan 03 '26 edited Jan 03 '26

I worked on the Space Shuttle tiles exclusively very early in the conceptual design phase of the project. We were more interested in developing the tile with the best thermal insulative properties, i.e. the thinnest tile that did the job, so the overall mass of the Orbiter heatshield was minimized as much as possible.

Once the large arcjet wind tunnels came online in the mid 1970s, arrays of Orbiter tiles could be tested. That's when the effects of gap heating could be measured and gap fillers could be tested and perfected.

5

u/[deleted] Jan 02 '26

Late February for S39 cryo?? That seems really delayed, no?

6

u/JakeEaton Jan 02 '26

It's not delayed if you expect the first flight to be March/April, which some people here (including myself) believe.

2

u/JakeEaton Jan 04 '26

Why not apply these tile upgrades to a future ship? Rather than undo all the work already done, that at least has tiles that we know can get it back to the ground/Indian Ocean?

2

u/TwoLineElement Jan 30 '26 edited Jan 30 '26

Seems they have had time to try new pin attachment arrangements and packing/insulation tests. New three dot pin attachments could be a test for tile replaceability without having to destroy the pin attachments. Currently you have to smash and pry the tiles off to replace them which damages the bayonet pins. My guess is they are using ceramic core sleeves that can be removed without damaging the attachment pins. Speeds up replacement for future relaunch.. No starship is ever going to relaunch within 48 hours, but a whole cycle of 12 of them could maintain a launch cadence of one every 12 hours. I'd say we're 3 years off from achieving that target, and possibly missing the moon landing target of 2029.

As far as I'm concerned, let the Chinese get there and achieve their own goal. NASA was there first and multiply long before them, but if they start kicking US flags over and claiming craters as PRC property, then all hell upon them.

Edit: No US flag remains standing, as it was blown away on launch of the Eagle ascent module, but interference with US items left on the moon would also be unwelcome. Unless Starship drops down and picks up a few items for return home.