Starbase

While Thursday’s inaugural flight of Starship brought excitement, incredible images, and a roar to South Texas, it also tossed concrete miles away (and at vans). Numerous leaked images, aerial photos, and ocean-based photos have revealed the extensive damage to Stage 0. Everything you need to see has been compiled into one article.

In a moment of shock and awe, SpaceX’s Starship launch vehicle lifted off from what was just a few years ago a small beach village at the southernmost point of Texas, now referred to as Starbase. While it didn’t make it to Hawaii, it did bring us closer to a new era of spaceflight – one whose launch market will most likely remain dominated by SpaceX’s innovation.

The FAA is expected to release the launch license for Starship as early as today. Reports from Christian Davenport, a reporter for The Washington Post, have stated that the license is nearly ready, barring some environmental concerns and a legal review. A strategy could come into play as to when the license is actually granted due to environmental activists attempting to halt the launch.

Edit: Road closure canceled for April 10.

At 2:42 pm ET (1:42 pm CT), SpaceX performed another static fire of their Super Heavy booster. This test was performed using 11 of the 33 Raptor 2 engines. These static fire tests are intended to test the booster and ground support equipment to prove the system’s readiness for a planned orbital flight test and many future missions supporting Starlink and eventually NASA’s Artemis Missions.

Both Booster 7 and Ship 24 were static fired for the first time this week as a second Starbase surge appeared to begin. Over in Florida, the completion of the orbital launch tower grows ever closer. 

The FAA once again moved the date for when it intends to release the final Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) for launching Starship from SpaceX’s Starbase facility. Initially intended for today, the administration is now looking to release Starbase’s PEA on June 13, or “in two weeks.”

Starship development across Starbase and Florida has continued at a pace over the past week with progress on present and future vehicles and the scrapping of past vehicles, as Ship 21 met its fate.

Booster 7 underwent a cryogenic proof test earlier in the week, Ship 24 sections were moved around the production site, and work on the launch tower sections in Florida continues.

After months and months of delays, and numerous rumors regarding the fate of SpaceX’s first Starship/Booster pair to be fully stacked, Elon Musk tweeted a wealth of new information about the company’s first orbital Starship flight.

As progress continues to move at a rapid pace, a fully stacked Starship underwent its first cryogenic proof test this week followed by the first propellant loading test for the vehicle.

Hardware continues to be spotted in Florida with the construction of the tower segments as foundations are poured at Starship’s Florida launch site.

Starship HLS work is underway, booster stacking continued, and a potential payload dispenser was installed as another busy week at Starbase comes to a close.

Tonight Elon Musk will update us on the current progress of SpaceX’s Starship development. The last time this happened was in 2019, just after the first Starhopper flight.

This Thursday, Elon Musk will finally update the world on what SpaceX has been doing down there in South Texas. Below is what we expect Elon Musk to talk about when he takes the stage.

SpaceX plans to start catching their Starship Super Heavy booster have raised eyebrows. Those Starship catch attempts should start with Booster 5, the second Super Heavy booster to launch, Elon confirmed in a tweet this week. Along with this, news about Starlink satellite’s laser interconnects and development at Starbase.

Update: In a reply to the images SpaceX CEO Elon Musk confirmed the tread is for a new crane they purchased.

There is something exciting about seeing that SpaceX “X” painted on the side of some sort of machinery. Again we have another social media post showing possible new SpaceX hardware but this time much further away from the US.

A surprise to those focused on Astra’s orbital launch attempt today, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and the crew of Inspiration4 took to the skies for a flyover of Starbase this afternoon.

In the last two years, we have seen SpaceX go from building circular rings in a dirt patch to having a full rocket factory in South Texas. On this day 2 years ago their first creation, Starhopper, makes its famed 150-meter flight.

Since Elon first tweeted about a larger high-bay coming to SpaceX’s Starbase we’ve been waiting for construction to begin. At last, the ground has been broken to start construction of the largest building yet at Starbase.