NET 16 July 2026 @ 1745CT. There was a snazzy 'infographic' on "formerly known as" but I didn't include that because I do not wish to trigger Musk haters - but evidently they're going to "Pez" 20 V3 operational (?) Starlink birds during the test flight. Since this will be a 0 Perigee flight, I expect that the satellites will have about a 20 minute operational endurance - but that's Elon being Elon again. Looking forward to them getting the hardest part behind them........those famous or infamous 'first six inches.'
It appears 4 of 33 engines failed to light, 4/33=12%, failed to start. Good reason to find and fix before flight. Bob Wilson
Absolutely fabulous! Some rough spots (i.e., engine restarts) to address but what a brilliant accomplishment! Bob Wilson
Absolutely fabulous just about sums it up. Ship 40 appeared to perform flawlessly - and 20/20 working Starlink V3 birds were lofted and tested. If we believe Space-X, these were issue-free as well. Booster 20 repeated some of the V3 Raptor light/relight problems we've seen but I feel that the 2 most important 'next steps' which are orbiting and landing a ship are well within reach on the next IFT. This means that we now have not just one but TWO private companies who have demonstrated capability in landing and re-using a super heavy booster and most of the steps necessary to do the same things with an orbiting vehicle. The Pez dispenser has more or less worked without issues and if they can work out the rest of the bugs then we could well see mass-to orbit prices reduced from an already revolutionary LOW $2500 per kilo to something like $600 using Starship. All of this is IF we are to believe Space-X numbers. Before the IPO they were largely controlled or at least moderated by Musk himself, but now those numbers are somewhat 'crowd sourced' by the stock market and "regulated" by the SEC. Fun times......
