Space obsession, queen confessions.
Three days after Booster 22 lit all 33 engines, its partner Ship 42 fired a single Raptor on Monday night and then all six on Tuesday afternoon. Both halves of Starship Flight 15 have now passed their static fires. Here’s what the tests checked and what’s still left before launch (the Nov. 8 date is still unofficial).
On Sunday, SpaceX fired all 33 Raptor engines on Booster 22, the Super Heavy picked for Starship Flight 15. Here’s what a static fire is, why this one matters, and what still has to happen before Flight 15, where SpaceX may try to catch both the booster and the ship (not yet confirmed).
Starbase, the day before Starship Flight 9 and the day after: a pad-side look at the stack, a hand-painted Boca Chica sign, the funniest welcome plaque ever, plus what Flight 9 really did and why it still gives me chills.
I’m not going to pretend I’m calm when a Starship integrated flight test is on the schedule. I’m the opposite of calm. I’m the person who sets three alarms, checks the stream an hour early, and still somehow misses the countdown because I’m pacing the room. I’m the one refreshing NSF and SpaceX’s X feed…