Onboard views from Starship and Super Heavy V3, which are equipped with upgraded cameras capable of streaming 4K video through every phase of flight via @Starlink
These vehicles are the first of many – made possible by the tireless effort of SpaceX engineers and technicians – and are designed to enable the core revolutionary capabilities of Starship
@SciGuySpace The Starship production pipeline is full and will complete roughly 10 more ships and about half that number of boosters this year, so, if something goes wrong, it will not be a major setback, unless the launch stand is destroyed
Starship’s twelfth flight test will debut the next generation Starship and Super Heavy vehicles, powered by the next evolution of the Raptor engine and launching from a newly designed pad at Starbase. The launch is targeted as early as Tuesday, May 19 → https://t.co/2gZQUxS6mm
Three years since the first flight of Starship, the next generation is here. New ship. New booster. New engines. New pad and new test site. SpaceX engineers are working to solve one of the most difficult engineering challenges in history: developing a fully, rapidly reusable rocket
Initial Super Heavy V3 and Starbase Pad 2 activation campaign complete, wrapping up several days of testing that loaded cryogenic fuel and oxidizer on a V3 vehicle for the first time. While the 10-engine static fire ended early due to a ground-side issue, we saw successful startup on all installed Raptor 3 engines. Next up: preparing the booster for a 33-engine static fire
Over the coming days, we’ll conduct a series of tests to activate Pad 2 at Starbase, exercise new propellant loading operations, and operate a vehicle with new Raptor 3 engines installed for the first time
Cryoproof operations complete for the first time with a Super Heavy V3 booster. This multi-day campaign tested the booster's redesigned propellant systems and its structural strength
Raptor V4 engines will need to deliver 300 (metric) tons of force for the 33 engines to generate a collective 10,000 tons of force.
Note, I use ton to refer to 10,000 Newtons of force. I just don’t like the way tonne-force looks and nobody knows what a Newton is. It also makes estimating things like acceleration in your head easier when vehicle mass is also in tons.