SpaceX's first flight test of Starship V3 booster and ship taking place in a few weeks

What's the target date for this?

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What's the target date for this?

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'A few weeks"

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Video of successful static fire test that took place yesterday

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They turned on the power switch. Whoa Nellie!

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If Artemis launches are going to be even close to on schedule, it seems like we're going to have to have a ton of action from SpaceX starting now. Going to be fun

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Right. Artemis III only goes to low Earth orbit, but for Artimis IV Starship will need to go into low earth orbit and be refueled between 10 and 15 times with additional starship launches before heading to lunar orbit to meet up with Orion.

That's a lot of progress they need to make in the next 2 years, they will not perfect that at their current test rate.

If I'm being honest I expect Blue Origin will be selected for the initial lunar landings, just because they will beat Starship in getting to the moon.

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If I'm being honest I expect Blue Origin will be selected for the initial lunar landings, just because they will beat Starship in getting to the moon.

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Crazy how far ahead SpaceX eight years ago with the falcon heavy double booster landing.

They don’t seem so far ahead now.

Blue Origin’s lander needs refueling to get to the moon too. What makes you think they are ahead?

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Crazy how far ahead SpaceX eight years ago with the falcon heavy double booster landing. They don’t seem so far ahead now.

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Blue Origin isn't even swimming in the same pool as SpaceX as it comes to a sustainable lunar presence. Is it possible they get a simplified apollo-style lander on Artemis IV? Sure. Will they replace Starship's mass launching capability for future missions? Absolutely not.

Both Blue Origin and NASA/SLS are only capable of half (or less than 1/3 in BO's case) of what Starship will be able to do.

Starship has 2x the takeoff thrust of the SLS rocket that just launched and 3-4x the mass launching capability of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket.

Confused why we need to refuel do much. Thought engines were not used much after lunar transit burn

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Confused why we need to refuel so much. Thought engines were not used much after lunar transit burn

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laymen's explanation: Starship is so large, it takes all the booster has just to get it into orbit, then starship uses what fuel it has left to stabilize the orbit leaving it with nothing to generate the delta-v required for that transit burn.

First refueling booster launches a cargo starship with 100% fuel, by the time it gets in orbit and positioned to transfer fuel, it only has enough fuel left to fill the original Starship's tanks by 10% (made up number) and still have enough to do it's deorbit and landing burns.

second refueling booster is the same

third refueling booster is the same

so on and so forth...

15 boosters later, the original Starship finally has enough fuel loaded to make that lunar insertion burn, stabilize the lunar orbit, do whatever landing maneuvers and then take off maneuvers it has to do, do an Earth transit burn, then decelerate and land on Earth

Disclaimer: made up numbers - it takes 5 pounds of fuel to shoot 1 pound of payload into orbit. How many pounds of fuel do you need?

5?

Nope! You need five pounds to lift the cargo, then 25 pounds to lift the first 5 pounds of fuel needed for that 1 pound of cargo, now, that fuel burns up so the requirement isn't just growing exponentially, but you get the idea.

Starship is heavy as frick.