Elon Musk’s upcoming Starship presentation to mark 12 months of rapid progress.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is set to provide a highly anticipated update on the company’s Starship program on September 28th from Boca Chica, Texas. The presentation is expected to take place in front of the first nearly completed Starship prototype – capping off 12 months of rapid progress which has seen the program transition from fancy renders to reality.
Over the past few years, Musk has been conducting annual presentations on the status of SpaceX’s next-generation vehicles designed to colonize the Moon and Mars.
While the names of the vehicles have changed numerous times over the years, the spacecraft is currently called Starship with its first stage booster called Super Heavy.
The system is designed to be fully reusable – with both Super Heavy and Starship capable of landing propulsively.
During last year’s presentation, Musk announced that Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa had purchased a flight to send Maezawa and several artists around the Moon. While the news caught the attention of many, the launch vehicle was still in the very early phases of development.
At SpaceX’s launch site in Boca Chica, there was not much more than a mound of dirt. And, the state of affairs were similar at a planned Starship factory at the Port of Los Angeles.
While the concept was exciting, the launch system was far from flight-ready.
Fast forward 12 months and the state of Starship development is radically different.
In Boca Chica, the mound of dirt has been transformed into an operational launch site – outfitted with the ground support equipment needed to support test flights of the methane-fueled Starship vehicles.
Additionally, at the nearby operations center, the first full-scale Starship vehicle is nearing completion and is expected to be the backdrop of the upcoming presentation.
And if that was not enough, a second Starship prototype is also nearing completion near Cape Canaveral, Florida. That vehicle will be launched from Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center which is already undergoing renovations to prepare for the upcoming Starship flights.
As for the factory at the Port of Los Angeles, it was scrapped just weeks after Musk’s 2018 presentation. The cancellation was made after a radical change of plans which saw the Starship and Super Heavy designs pivot from carbon fiber to steel.
The switch was made to reduce the technical complexity of the project and removed the need for a factory with advanced machinery.
Consequently, SpaceX is now assembling the vehicles near their launch site, as transporting a nine-meter diameter rocket for thousands of miles is less than ideal.
The 150 meter hop was the final flight of Starhopper. It is now set to be converted into a vertical Raptor test stand – with the flight test campaign transitioning to a full-scale Starship prototype.
Named Starship Mk1, the new prototype is expected to perform flights to much greater altitudes – with a launch to around 20 kilometers expected in the coming weeks.
To do so, the vehicle will be far more advanced than the single-engine Starhopper. Not only will it be substantially taller, but Mk1 will also be outfitted with landing gear, control surfaces, and three Raptor engines.
SpaceX teams have been racing around the clock to prepare the Mk1 vehicle for the presentation on September 28th – with the goal of having the vehicle’s primary structure fully assembled in time for the event.
During the presentation, Musk is expected to outline the current state of the program, including the methane-powered Raptor engines, launch site developments, and changes to Starship’s design since the last presentation.
Like all previous years, this year’s update will once again feature a change in the aero surfaces of the vehicle – used to help the spacecraft navigate in the atmosphere before landing.
The plans for the launch pads have only materialized over the past few months, with many of the details found in environmental documents already outdated.
What is known is that modifications are well underway to prepare the Boca Chica and Kennedy Space Center-based pads for their respective Starship activities.
In Boca Chica, Texas, construction is ongoing to transition the launch pad from Starhopper to Starship flights.
Since Starship is substantially bigger than the Starhopper, the vehicle will require additional propellant. Thus, teams have been working to increase the propellant storage capacity at the launch site.