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According to CEO Elon Musk, SpaceX will share new photos of BFR's Starship upper stage in January and begin booster production as early as next spring. (SpaceX) According to CEO Elon Musk, SpaceX will share new photos of BFR's Starship upper stage in January and begin booster production as early as next spring. (SpaceX)

SpaceX

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk teases new Starship photos and “heavy metal” BFR

CEO Elon Musk says that SpaceX will share new photos of BFR's Starship upper stage in January and begin building boosters in Spring 2019. (SpaceX)

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6 years ago

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Drawn in by Teslarati photographer Pauline Acalin’s most recent photos of Port of LA Falcon 9 recovery operations SpaceX is in the midst of, CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter on December 8th to discuss titanium grid fins and – more importantly – answer a miscellaneous handful of questions about the status of BFR’s development.

Marked lately by rapid-fire, wide-reaching changes to BFR’s general structural composite, Musk at long last confirmed what some suspected – now known as Starship/Super Heavy, the BFR program has officially moved away from carbon fiber composites as the primary material of choice for the rocket’s structure and propellant tanks, instead pivoting to what Musk described as a “fairly heavy metal”.

Aside from his confirmation that SpaceX has moved to metallic tanks and structures on BFR’s spaceship upper stage and booster (Starship/Super Heavy), Musk further stated that SpaceX was planning to release new photos of a prototype Starship – currently under construction for full-scale hop-tests in South Texas – as few as four weeks from today.

 

It’s hard to say what those photos will show, but suffice it say that Musk would not tease the release of BFR-related photos on Twitter if they were not expected to be at least a touch spectacular. Per the CEO’s brief comments on hardware at his September 2018 introduction to Dear Moon, the most likely candidates for those photos would be a Starship (BFS) thrust structure in the middle of Raptor integration and additional progress being made on the ship prototype’s structures, perhaps including completed metallic tanks and some of its aerodynamic fins and wings.

Question: “Is Super Heavy in development at all, or just starship right now?”

Elon Musk: “Both, but demo Starship is being built now, whereas Super Heavy hardware will start getting built in spring”

While BFR’s official development schedule has essentially been thrown up in the air by these recent design changes, both Musk and COO/President Gwynne Shotwell stated earlier this year that they expected spaceship (now Starship) hop tests to begin no earlier than (NET) the end of 2019 – Q4 or December, in other words. SpaceX just recently began a major ramp in activity at its South Texas test and launch facilities, beginning construction on several partially prepared acres that were long ago predicted to support a wholly private Falcon 9/Falcon Heavy launch pad.

These new plans to release official BFR photos simply adds to the ever-growing pile of major SpaceX events that could potentially occur in Q 2019, including Crew Dragon’s first uncrewed trip to orbit and the International Space Station (ISS), Falcon Heavy’s second launch ever, and the launch of several additional prototype Starlink satellites, among many other possibilities.

2019 is gonna be wild. Stay tuned for additional updates on SpaceX’s future plans and Musk’s spontaneous Twitter Q&As as the new year nears.

For prompt updates, on-the-ground perspectives, and unique glimpses of SpaceX’s rocket recovery fleet check out our brand new LaunchPad and LandingZone newsletters!

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Eric Ralph is Teslarati's senior spaceflight reporter and has been covering the industry in some capacity for almost half a decade, largely spurred in 2016 by a trip to Mexico to watch Elon Musk reveal SpaceX's plans for Mars in person. Aside from spreading interest and excitement about spaceflight far and wide, his primary goal is to cover humanity's ongoing efforts to expand beyond Earth to the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere.

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SpaceX and Elon Musk explain potential reasons for Starship loss

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2 months ago

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January 17, 2025

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Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX and its CEO Elon Musk are starting to shed some light on the potential reasoning for the loss of Starship yesterday, which was lost after a successful launch and catch of the lower-stage booster.

Starship was lost during its ascension, and debris rained down over the Caribbean less than an hour after SpaceX lost all communication with the spacecraft.

A few hours after the launch was over, SpaceX started to shed some light after looking at preliminary data that the rocket left behind.

The company said that a fire developed in the aft section of Starship:

“Following stage separation, the Starship upper stage successfully lit all six Raptor engines and performed its ascent burn to space. Prior to the burn’s completion, telemetry was lost with the vehicle after approximately eight and a half minutes of flight. Initial data indicates a fire developed in the aft section of the ship, leading to a rapid unscheduled disassembly with debris falling into the Atlantic Ocean within the predefined hazard areas.”

Additionally, Musk said that there was some sort of oxygen or fuel leak in the cavity above the ship engine firewall.

The leak was evidently large enough to build more pressure than the vent was able to handle:

Some also seemed to recognize evidence of fires throughout the flight of Starship, which is obviously an anomaly:

There will be more information regarding the loss of Starship in the coming days and weeks, but Musk already believes that a bit of fire suppression and more volume in the cavity above the ship engine firewall could fix the issue.

“Nothing so far suggests pushing next launch past next month,” he said, so Flight 8 could happen sometime in February.

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Please email me with questions and comments at joey@teslarati.com. I’d love to chat! You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

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SpaceX completes second catch of lower stage, but loses Starship

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2 months ago

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January 16, 2025

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Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX completed its seventh launch of Starship on Thursday, accomplishing a clean liftoff and catch of the first-stage booster. However, the upper stage was lost after its ascent.

The launch took place just a few minutes after 5 p.m. on the East Coast, as the first attempts at getting Starship in the air for the seventh time were delayed by weather both last week and this week.

Conditions were favorable on Thursday as SpaceX looked to follow up a successful campaign by Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’s company, earlier today.

SpaceX went into the seventh Starship launch with plans for a catch attempt of the first-stage booster, something it attempted and completed during the fifth test launch last year. It decided to skip a catch attempt with the sixth test flight as conditions were not aligned.

For now, SpaceX is extremely selective as to when it attempts catches.

However, it was successful during this attempt, its second completed catch:

This flight differed from previous launches as SpaceX rolled out several improvements to the rocket and the processes as it featured plans to do a Starlink deployment simulation and had various adjustments to flap placement and avionics.

These plans were disrupted by the fact that SpaceX lost all communications with Starship about ten minutes into the flight, which the aerospace company confirmed was a result of losing the spacecraft sometime during its ascent.

Although the catch was successful, the loss of the actual rocket seemed to be a huge damper on the entire event. SpaceX confirmed several minutes after the loss of communications that the rocket was destroyed and was lost.

It was its first failure since the second Starship launch in November 2023. SpaceX had no answers for why the rocket was destroyed and lost.

We will keep you updated in the coming days.

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Please email me with questions and comments at joey@teslarati.com. I’d love to chat! You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

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SpaceX confirms next Starship launch target – Here’s when it will take off

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2 months ago

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January 9, 2025

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spacex starship upper stage catch
Credit: Elon Musk | X

SpaceX has confirmed a new target date for the seventh Starship test launch after weather in Texas delayed the first scheduled date for “three or four days.”

The company is now targeting the launch for Monday, January 13, at 4 p.m. CST or 5 p.m. EST. The launch date is not set in stone as any variety of delays could impact this, but SpaceX hopes to finally take off after a delay that pushed it back from January 10.

What’s new with this Starship launch

With this being the seventh test launch of Starship, there are several things that the company will change and hope to accomplish. All of these launches are done in preparation for eventually taking flight to Mars, something that will happen next year, according to CEO Elon Musk.

First, SpaceX is rolling out a next-generation ship with “significant upgrades.” Forward flaps have been made smaller and are repositioned away from the heat shield, which will “reduce their exposure to reentry heating.”

SpaceX eyes 25 annual Starship launches starting next year

There is also a 25 percent increase in propellant volume, a new fuel feedline system for the Raptor vacuum engines, and a better-than-ever propulsion avionics module that will control the valves and reading sensors.

Avionics, as a whole, underwent a redesign and now have more capability and redundancy for missions as they become more complex.

Starlink test

SpaceX is also planning to deploy 10 Starlink simulators that are similar in size and weight to the next-generation Starlink satellites:

“While in space, Starship will deploy 10 Starlink simulators, similar in size and weight to next-generation Starlink satellites as the first exercise of a satellite deploy mission. The Starlink simulators will be on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship, with splashdown targeted in the Indian Ocean. A relight of a single Raptor engine while in space is also planned.”

Ship return and catch

There will be several experiments that have to do with returning Starship and various catch scenarios and sequences. One of which will see “a significant number of tiles be removed to stress-test vulnerable areas across the vehicle.”

The ship’s reentry profile was also intentionally designed to test the structural limits of the flaps while at the point of maximum dynamic pressure during reentry.

Currently, SpaceX did not detail whether it would attempt another catch during this test launch. These are usually game-time decisions.

Need accessories for your Tesla? Check out the Teslarati Marketplace:

Please email me with questions and comments at joey@teslarati.com. I’d love to chat! You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

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