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SpaceX is hiring Crew Starship mechanical engineers

This afternoon Ship 33, the Flight 7 Starship and the first Version.2 ship, completed a static fire at the Masseys test site.

Note the redesigned forward fins. Version.2 ships also have larger propellant tanks (and smaller cargo bays). And probably many more changes that are less obvious.

SpaceX photo





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And yesterday 33 unexpectedly conducted another static fire, this time of just a single engine. (There are six engines in total, all of which lit up on Sunday.)

Speculation is that this was a deorbit-burn test.

And last night 33 returned back down the road to the megabay-2 in the build area

SpaceX photo. (The curving river in the upper left is the Rio Grande, the US/Mexico border.)





33 back in the barn (photo by S.E.Robinson)

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The FAA just issued a Flight 7 launch license

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The FAA is pleased with itself for getting this launch license out well in advance of Flight 7's anticipated launch date on January 11, 2025. They say that they continue to improve their efficiency so as to better serve the commercial launch industry. (I can't help wondering if Trump's election had anything to do with it.)

NASA-5, the NASA plane that will be observing S33's orbital velocity reentry near Australia, is performing one of its instrument calibration flights over the Gulf of Mexico right now.

Starbase Christmas Parade!

https://x.com/ENNEPS/status/1869232510594642268

https://x.com/NASASpaceflight/status/186...8188892358

Christmas Bells!

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1870892084699275695

Here's the first of five articles about the changes between the Version 1 and 2 ships, by the incredible Ringwatchers (true Ubergeeks) written by Jax, their intrepid leader. Jax is one of those people (well above my pay-grade) who can just look at a few weld marks on the outer skin of the ship and figure out what's happening to the inner structures from a few dark dots.

This first article goes into the nose cone, its construction and structural design, the forward flaps and their hinges and actuators, the nose header tanks and all the pressure regulation stuff for the headers.

This is real engineering stuff (make sure you take notes, China!)

https://ringwatchers.com/article/s33-nose

SpaceX has applied to the FCC for authorization to use an assortment of radios and radars on future Starship missions. These include tanker/depot missions and the Artemis HLS lander. The 31 page application technical annex below contains a wealth of information about various mission profiles, from tankers/depots to the HLS landers. It discusses their earth and lunar orbits and the various antennas the various ships will carry.

https://licensing.fcc.gov/myibfs/downloa...y=32702913

Here's the amazing Ringwatchers' (true Uber-Geeks) literally book length (!) analysis of the new Version.2 Starships!

Article 1: the nose

https://ringwatchers.com/article/s33-nose

Article 2: the propellant tanks

https://ringwatchers.com/article/s33-tanks

Article 3: the business end

https://ringwatchers.com/article/s33-aft

Article 4: the payload bay

https://ringwatchers.com/article/s33-pez

Article 5: the heat shield

https://ringwatchers.com/article/s33-tps

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B14 (the flight 7 booster) rolled out to the launch site this afternoon, in advance of its flight a week from this coming Friday.

Photo by Carlos Nunez