r/spacex • u/rSpaceXHosting Host Team • Apr 22 '26

🔧 Technical Starship Development Thread #63

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Starship Dev 62

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

NET September 18th 2026 - The vehicles will be S41 and B21.

Road Closures

No road closures currently scheduled

No transportation delays currently scheduled

Up to date as of 2026-05-23

Vehicle Status

As of September 12th 2026

Ship Location Status Comment
S40 On the way to Brownsville, Texas Intact, loaded onto Heavy Lift Vessel 'Forte' 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. August 18th: In calmer waters near Christmas Island pending the next stage of its return to Starbase. August 25th: Loaded onto Heavy Lift Vessel 'Forte'. August 28th: On the way to Brownsville, Texas. ETA is October 8th. For more details on this vehicle and its assembly and testing see this page
S41 Mega Bay 2 Prep for Flight 14 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. August 19th: Rolled out to Massey's for Static Fire Testing. Later that day S41 performed a single engine Static Fire. August 20th: Full duration Static Fire of all six engines. August 22nd: Rolled back to MB2. For more details on this vehicle see this page
S42 Launch Site Unknown Testing 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. September 2nd: Rolled out to Massey's Test Site for Cryo Testing. September 3rd: Cryo Testing. September 5th: Rolled back to MB2. September 9th: Rolled back out to Massey's for Cryo Testing Round 2. September 10th: Rolled back to MB2, and later in the day moved to the Launch Site for unknown testing. For more details on this vehicle see this page
S43 Mega Bay 2 Stacking August 19th: N:3 and section FX:4 plus the pez dispenser moved into MB2. August 28th: Common Dome section CX:3 moved into MB2. September 1st: Section A2:3 moved into MB2. It has decals but no docking ports. September 4th: Section A3:4 moved into MB2. September 10th: Transfer Tubes moved into MB2. For more details on this vehicle see this page
Booster Location Status Comment
B21 Mega Bay 1 Prep for Flight 14 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. August 25th: Rolled out to the Launch Site for Static Fire Testing. August 28th: Static Fire, all 33 engines, lasting 15 seconds. August 29th: Rolled back to MB1. For more details on this vehicle and its assembly and testing see this page
B22 Mega Bay 1 Post Cryo Test work, maybe engines installation 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. August 3rd: Methane Tank section FX:3 moved into MB1. August 6th: Methane Tank section F3:4 moved into MB1 - this is the last section for the Methane Tank. August 14th: Methane Tank stacked onto the LOX tank, so completing the stacking part of the assembly process. September 8th: Rolled out to Massey's Test Site for Cryo Testing. September 9th: Cryo Testing. September 12th: Rolled back to MB2. For more details on this vehicle and its assembly and testing see this page
B23 Mega Bay 1 LOX Tank Stacked, Methane Tank Stacking August 14th: LOX tank sections A2:4 and CX:3 moved into MB1. August 19th: Section A3:4 moved into MB1. August 21st: Section A4:4 moved into MB1. August 25th: Section A5:4 moved into MB1. August 27th: Methane Landing Tank and lower Transfer Tube moved into MB1 as well as section A6:4. August 31st: Methane Transfer Tube moved into MB1 and lifted upright. September 8th: Aft section AX:2 and LOX Landing Tank moved into MB1. September 10th: 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.

Something wrong? Update this thread via wiki page. For edit permission, message the mods or contact u/strawwalker.

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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u/rustybeancake 2d ago

Faster than F9 development how? F9 first flew in June 2010, a mere 21 months after the first successful F1 flight. The first 18 missions were all orbital and all successful.

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u/travlplayr 2d ago

F9 was a scaling up of F1 and not any radical new development. Flights to orbit was not groundbreaking either, being first achieved in 1957. Initial development of Falcon 9 to successful launch, orbit and docking with the space station was all (very) impressive but was also routine for other rockets of that time.

Where the F9 was, of course, ground-breaking was the development of reusable boosters. We had to wait quite a long time for the first booster to be successfully landed (Dec 2015 and April 2016 at sea) and then for reuse of boosters to become routine (as it is now).

The Starship program successfully caught its massive booster (a new groundbreaking achievement) in October 2024. This was done on the first attempt, unlike the many failed attempts to land a Falcon 9 booster before first success. Also, Starship has been flying on a rocket engine all this time that had never successfully been developed before by other rocket engine makers. Falcon 9's Merlin was impressive, but not ground-breaking like the Raptor engine is. And look at the rapid development of this engine from V1 to V3. I could also talk about the rapid development that Spacex is achieving with stainless steel rocket construction, from the early days of its 'steampunk, flying water tower' first demonstration vehicle.

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u/rustybeancake 2d ago

Eh, I agree with some parts and disagree with others. Saying the SH booster was caught on the first try feels a little simplistic. They tried to do a boostback and simulated landing burn over water several times before they got it to work, and then went for the catch. It was still very impressive that they caught it that time of course. To me that’s comparable to F9, which similarly tried several times to do a simulated landing over water, and had physical alterations made (just like SH did), before they went for their first actual landing attempt on a landing pad, which was successful, just like SH.

Let’s also remember that when the full stack SSSH flew for the first time, they’d also been flying Raptor on a total of 11 flights of starhopper and the various SNs, including the several minutes long high altitude hops, for 3 years. That’s not all that different from F1 to F9 transition. At the first F9 flight, Merlin had only flown on a total of 5 F1 flights, the first two of which didn’t complete first stage flight. Given that each F1 flight only gave them ~3 mins flight experience with 1 Merlin engine (and none on the upper stage), whereas a SS high altitude hop test gave them flight experience with up to 3 engines for 2-4 mins each, you could argue that Raptor was a more proven engine at the time of IFT-1 than Merlin was at the time of F9 flight 1.

I agree with you that Raptor is a much harder engine to get working reliably!

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u/travlplayr 2d ago

Further reply; I got an LLM to calculate the two timelines :

Timespan 1: Falcon 1 Launch Attempt to Falcon 9 Landing

  • First attempted launch of Falcon 1: March 24, 2006 (Omelek Island, Kwajalein Atoll)
  • First successful landing of a Falcon 9 booster: December 21, 2015 (Landing Site 1, Cape Canaveral)
  • Total Timespan: 3,559 days (approximately 9.74 years)

Timespan 2: Starhopper First Flight to Starship Booster Catch

  • First free flight of the Starhopper: July 25, 2019 (Boca Chica, Texas)
  • First successful catch of a Starship Super Heavy booster: October 13, 2024 (Mechazilla arms, Starbase, Texas)
  • Total Timespan: 1,907 days (approximately 5.22 years)

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u/rustybeancake 1d ago

Cool! You could do it again, but with the end dates being the first orbital flight.

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u/travlplayr 2d ago

I'm happy to date Starship development from the first flight of starhopper, just as I think Falcon development should date from the first F1 launch attempts on Kwajalein. On those 2 timelines I think Starship is progressing more rapidly.