In two posts on his social media platform, X, Elon Musk shared that a version 2 of Starship is around the corner and will bring various improvements to the rocket. However, it sounds like there will still be a few “V1” Starships left to be tested before moving to V2.
Four V1 Starships left for testing
We are only just over a week out from the second launch of a full Starship rocket and Musk is already starting to talk about a second version of Starship. While this might sound like a major change in what we’ll see in the future, it most likely won’t be something you will see from the outside.
Musk shared this news with a tease of a post on X, formally Twitter, showing the four currently assembled Starship vehicles at Starbase, saying, “four more Starships, the last of V1.” This implied that a V2 rocket would be coming in the future.
Thanks to the community of Starbase watchers, we have been able to track the final four V1 Starship vehicles as they have all been corralled into the High Bay.
The four remaining Starship upper stages will be Ship 28, 29, 30, and 32. Ship 31 was assembled, however, it was moved to Starbase’s Rocket Garden. Usually being put in a Rocket Garden is a spot of honor, but at Starbase it’s a sign the vehicle will soon be scrapped.
Ship 28 was moved off of a stand used for Raptor installation and then moved to the High Bay, the smaller of the three rocket vertical assembly buildings. Now Ship 28 will received more work to its heat shield section because if it flies, SpaceX is hoping to get this one around the Earth and attempt reentry.
You can catch these moves in the recent tracking update from NASASpaceflight.
Will all four of these Starships fly? That’s unknown at the moment. While it might sound like they will, SpaceX in the past has changed plans and skipped vehicles in favor of a more reliable design.
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What changes might come to V2?
And that reliability is what Starship V2 will be all about. In a reply to one of his employees asking questions about Starship V2 on X, Musk shared that “version 2 of the ship holds more propellant, reduces dry mass and improves reliability.”
It isn’t a huge surprise that changes would come to Starship that would require a new version. Over the year Musk has talked about numerous issues with Starship’s current design that will need improving. Also, after years of flight tests and development, I’m sure there is a list of items that SpaceX has thought about changing.
One change that has been talked about is a nine engine version of Starship with six vacuum optimized engines on the bottom. In theory there would be room to install three more engines on the underside of Starship, but it’s unclear at this time if that will happen with V2.
Starbase is an almost 24/7 operation at this point, so production of V2 parts will most likely begin shortly, if they haven’t started already.
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