Starship News

[IXLR8]

Starship scheduled for the 4th flight did a full throttle test burn on March 25. Booster still needs to be moved to launch pad for it's testing. They found some burned cryogenic delivery lines on the launch pad that need to be repaired/replaced before any testing of the booster can happen. SpaceX hoping for early May launch for flight test 4.

 

[IXLR8]

The Starship Booster was moved to the launch pad on Thursday April 4th, and a static fire test of the engines was done on Friday the 5th. Still hoping for early May launch date.

 

[IXLR8]

Looks like Starship 4 and booster 11 were moved to their maintenance buildings a few weeks ago. Starship 5 was moved to launch pad to test fire the 6 engines a few days ago.
Starship 4/Booster 11 are waiting for FAA to finish evaluation/report on Starship 3 flight before granting license for Starship 4 flight.

 

[IXLR8]

Booster 11 was moved back to the launch pad on Saturday. Assumption was for more testing. I saw a footnote that said that SpaceX has a license for Starship 4 flight, but SpaceX wants a modification to the license and that is what they are waiting for. Musk posted on X that he thinks Starship 4 launch is 3-5 weeks out.

 

[otlski]

Jim, are you a member of the NSF Forums?

 

[IXLR8]

Jim, are you a member of the NSF Forums?

Nope, I just do a search for "Starship x launch" whenever I happen to think about it and see what pops up.

 

[IXLR8]

On Wed, the 15th, the ship was stacked on top of the booster at the launch site. They are still talking 3-5 weeks before launch as the requested license modifications have not been approved yet.

 

[IXLR8]

On Monday, the 20th, they loaded the ship and booster with a total of 10 millions lbs of propellant as part of a practice countdown. It was a successful test. Tuesday they removed the propellant, removed the ship from the booster and put it back in the maintenance hanger. They are still installing the heat shield tiles. Key deliverable for this flight is successful reentry/splashdown for both the booster and the ship. They are not planning on relighting the engines or anything else they did on launch 3. Musk tweeted today that ship 4 should launch in about 2 weeks. Although they are still waiting for FAA approval.

 

[IXLR8]

Starship flight 4 has a penciled in launch time/date of 08:00 EDT June 5. This is dependent on getting the FAA approval in time. Issues with flight 3, both booster and the ship, are reported to be centered around dirt in O2 tanks and not enough filtration causing nozzles to get plugged and then the engines and thrusters to not re-ignite when needed.

 

[IXLR8]

According to SpaceFlightNow.com, Starship 4 launch has been moved to NET June 6 08:00EDT.
No reason given for the one day delay.
FAA has told SpaceX they can launch Starship 4 without completing the Starship 3 investigation, but it is unclear if the FAA has signed off on the launch license for Starship 4.
NET= Not Earlier Than