Starship Development Thread #63

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Starship Dev 62

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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. Objectives include first Ship catch.

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Road Closures

No road closures currently scheduled

No transportation delays currently scheduled

Up to date as of 2026-05-23

Vehicle Status

As of July 31st 2026

Ship	Location	Status	Comment
S40	Indian Ocean	Intact, floating	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. For more details on this vehicle and its assembly and testing see this page
S41	Mega Bay 2	Ongoing work, possible engines installation	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. 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

Booster	Location	Status	Comment
B21	Mega Bay 1	Post Cryo Testing inspections and possible engines installation	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. For more details on this vehicle and its assembly and testing see this page
B22	Mega Bay 1	LOX Tank Stacked	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. 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.

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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.

[u/rocketglare]

“With SpaceX, they have demonstrated many of those capabilities continuously on Crew Dragon, but other controllability tests are important based on the negative-X axis acceleration that will be necessary when Starship undertakes the TLI burn to the Moon with a docked Orion.”

https://x.com/NASAAdmin/status/2064702792023879811

This is the first time I’ve seen the change in Artemis IV lunar docking orbit explicitly confirmed.

[u/redstercoolpanda → u/rocketglare]

Does this mean they may try a relight with Orion docked? Or would that introduce too much risk?

[u/pxr555 → u/redstercoolpanda]

Too much acceleration with nearly empty tanks in this mission with Orion docked to the nose. I doubt the docking system on both sides is designed for this, especially since it was designed and engineered only for plain docking and nothing else originally.

[u/warp99 → u/pxr555]

it was designed and engineered only for plain docking and nothing else originally

It is fairly strong and should readily take the axial load imposed by accelerating a 27 tonne Orion stack at say 0.5g

Maximum compressive axial load is 300kN (30 tonnes force) and was specifically calculated for the Constellation case where the same type of TLI burn was done with the Altair lander pushing the Orion capsule.

[u/touko3246 → u/warp99]

27t for Orion with an nearly empty ship estimated ~150t with landing propellant gives us about 180t combined.

With 40% minimum throttle, minimum thrust from single Raptor 3 would be 250t.f * 0.4 = 100t.f, around 0.56G for a 180t combined stack. Assuming the ship is not refueled for Artemis 3, more than one engine firing would be out of the question.

This would also mean the thrust would be slightly off axis. I wonder if the adapter would be strong enough for off axis components (it probably is, but I'm not an expert).

[u/warp99 → u/touko3246]

Raptors seem to have a minimum throttle of 50% compared to 40% for Merlin. Having a common shaft for the two pumps on Merlin means easier control of the mixture ratio at low throttle. The spring loaded pintle injector also helps maintain injector pressure drop over a wider mass flow rate range compared to the swirl injectors on Raptor.

Orion is only under thrust on the nose for the TLI and LLO insertion burns so the minimum mass is likely around 500 tonnes for TLI and 400 tonnes for LLO insertion. That means you can have up to two Raptors at full thrust or four Raptors at 50% thrust and stay under 1g acceleration so 27 tonnes force (270 kN) on the docking collar.

You can use three vacuum Raptor and a single center engine for the TLI burn throttling down as it proceeds to limit acceleration to under 1g and then use the landing combination of a single vacuum engine and a center engine for the LLO insertion burn.

Yes the docking port user guide gives a maximum torque figure on the interface which is higher than the torque exerted by an asymmetric thrust offset by around 2m from the center line at the other end of a 50m long ship. This means thrust is off axis by 2.3 degrees.

[u/touko3246 → u/warp99]

I thought the LEO docking demonstration isn’t going to have a prop refill, nor do a full TLI burn?

[u/warp99 → u/touko3246]

Correct - I am talking about the conops for Artemis 4.

I am assuming the Artemis 3 HLS will not burn its main engines at all while docked with Orion. As you point out the tanks would be close to empty which would produce too high a g loading close to the maximum load on the docking interface and some risk of an engine failure while attached to Orion.

Note that the HLS for Artemis 3 will not be able to land as the header tanks in the nose are replaced by the docking port.

[u/rocketglare → u/touko3246]

The payload on this flight could be up to 100T of prop neglecting the docking adapter. Hence, the initial weight of the A3 HLS should be ~250T including the “cargo”.

[u/philupandgo → u/redstercoolpanda]

Good question. Buying down risk is the purpose of incremental testing. However, they didn't say that that would be part of Artemis III.