SpaceX Has Never Moved This Fast With Starship!

Summary

Starship and SpaceX at Starbase

• SpaceX carried out a full-duration static fire of Booster 22 at Pad 2, firing all 33 engines for about 15 seconds. The test also exercised the pad’s water-deluge system.
• Booster 22 is slated for Starship Flight 15, which the video said was then scheduled no earlier than November 12. Flight 15 is expected to use an upgraded version of the Raptor 3 engine, with permanent fixes for issues seen on earlier flights.
• SpaceX rehearsed lifting and positioning Booster 22 and Ship 43 at the tower’s catch height, including connecting Ship 43 to the quick-disconnect arm. These operations prepare for attempted tower catches of both stages.
• Ship 42 completed a single-engine static fire, followed by a six-engine test lasting about 60 seconds. The video said the tests provide throttle and engine-gimbal data.
• A separate barrel section near the test site may be used to assess how heat-shield tiles withstand static-fire acoustics and vibration. This was presented as a possibility, not a confirmed purpose.
• Ship 43 was being prepared for a later flight and possible transport to Florida. The video described a proposed plan in which a Starship launched from Florida could orbit Earth for several hours before returning to Starbase for a catch.
• Ship 42, Ship 44, and Ship 45 were among the vehicles being processed or assembled as work continued across Starbase’s facilities.

Falcon 9 and Starlink

• Two Falcon 9 missions launched Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base.
• One launch marked Vandenberg’s 72nd launch of the year, exceeding its prior annual record, according to the video.
• The boosters landed on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You.

International Space Station

• A leak in the Russian Zvezda module’s transfer tunnel has persisted for more than five years and has worsened. Corrosion is thought to be contributing to the problem.
• The station is permanently closing the affected section. Progress cargo craft will use other docking ports to deliver supplies, then move to Zvezda’s aft port when needed to use their engines to reboost the station.
• NASA and Canadian Space Agency astronauts Anil Menon and Joshua Kutryk installed one of the station’s final two iROSA roll-out solar arrays during a spacewalk. The remaining array was scheduled for a later installation.
• The arrays are part of upgrades to the ISS power system that began in 2021.

Artemis and lunar exploration

• The Artemis III SLS core stage and its two solid rocket boosters were stacked inside Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building. The video noted that a wet dress rehearsal was expected in the following months and gave June 2027 as the then-current target, no-earlier-than date.
• In the described Artemis III plan, SLS would carry Orion and four crew members to low Earth orbit. Orion would dock with Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 2 lander, allowing the crew to inspect its cabin, controls, and life-support systems. Orion would then conduct further tests.
• SpaceX’s uncrewed Starship HLS would also perform a brief docking demonstration with Orion, testing controllability, communications, software integration, and docking and undocking. Orion would then return the crew to Earth.
• Blue Origin was preparing to hot-fire a New Glenn second stage at NASA’s Stennis test facility. The video also covered construction of a new launch pad at LC-36B and repairs to launch infrastructure at LC-36A.
• NASA redesigned an SLS quick-disconnect system after hydrogen-leak problems affected earlier Artemis launch preparations. A spacer for Artemis III will preserve interfaces while omitting the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage, which is not needed for the mission’s low-Earth-orbit profile.
• For Artemis IV, NASA had not yet selected between SpaceX’s Starship HLS and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon. The video said the plan was to use whichever lander proved ready first.
• Blue Origin’s proposed Blue Moon plan uses three propellant-loaded Mark 1 transfer vehicles, launched separately and assembled into a stack. Together, they would move the Mark 2 lander toward the Moon without orbital refilling. The plan requires four New Glenn launches in total.
• The transfer stages would be discarded sequentially. The final stage would place the lander in an elliptical polar lunar orbit about 8,500 km above the Moon. Orion would meet it there; two crew members would descend to the lunar south pole while two remained aboard Orion. After the surface mission, the lander would return to rendezvous with Orion.
• The video noted that NASA is working with United Launch Alliance on a modified Centaur V upper stage for SLS, intended to give Orion more capability to reach low lunar orbit and simplify future missions.

Other scientific material

A sponsored book about rebuilding civilization highlights the history of inventions and discoveries. One example is the evolution of gyroscopes and flywheels into control-moment gyroscopes, which help the ISS control its attitude and stability.

Researchers and sources featured

• Jeremy Parsons — cited in connection with the Raptor 3 update at a NASA acceleration update.
• Jared Isaacman — cited regarding the Artemis III schedule.
• Anil Menon (NASA) and Joshua Kutryk (Canadian Space Agency) — ISS spacewalkers who installed an iROSA array.
• Dave Limp (Blue Origin) — shared a view of the New Glenn second stage being moved to a test stand.
• Kiko, identified in the subtitles as SpaceX’s vice president of launch — cited on proposed Starship operations from Florida.
• NASA, SpaceX, Blue Origin, Canadian Space Agency, and United Launch Alliance — organizations and mission sources discussed.
• Hungry Minds — sponsor of the featured civilization-rebuilding encyclopedia.