SpaceX & Elon Are Planning To Have A Starship Presentation This Thursday

SpaceX & Elon Are Planning To Have A Starship Presentation This Thursday

It has been multiple years of continued innovation and development of Starship. Over the past few years, SpaceX has been rapidly changing Boca Chica and turning the barren land into a Starship factory, and launch site of the future. Just over two years ago in late 2019, Elon stood in front of an early starship prototype to help give a perspective of what they were planning. Now in early 2022 not only has the design of Starship changed significantly, but the progress, launch site, and much more have as well.

It has been confirmed by Elon Musk himself that this Thursday or February 10th, there will be another Starship presentation. There have been multiple in the past and each provided additional information on some of the major important topics surrounding Starship. This presentation is expected to cover a lot of valuable information and have a full Starship stack in the background.

In just over two years since the last presentation, SpaceX has made immense progress. What was just a few tents and visual prototypes, is now a practically fully operational orbital launch site, production site, and a 120-meter tall Starship getting ready for an orbital test flight. There are many questions that are expected to be answered in just a few days.

Presentation Details

Not long ago on February 3rd, Musk replied to a tweet asking when the next Starship presentation would be and responded “Thursday next week at 8pm Texas time”. This means that in two days on the 10th, we should expect the presentation to happen. In addition, we know some information about not only the location, but some of the things in the background SpaceX is hoping to have. Starbase is the obvious location not only because it was the location of the previous presentation but its where practically all the progress related to Starship is. Not only this but Starbase provides a great backdrop which Elon even highlighted on Twitter. While the last presentation had a very early Starship prototype as the backdrop, this year SpaceX is planning to have a fully stacked Starship consisting of B4 and S20. Once again on Twitter, someone asked if there will be a full stack for the presentation and Musk replied saying yes. Looking at the current progress and work going on at Starbase, this looks very likely to be the case as well. Just recently B4 was once again lifted and placed on top of the orbital launch mount. This means only S20 needs to be lifted and stacked for a full Starship to be in the backdrop.

With so much progress and change constantly happening with Starship, there are practically endless things Musk could talk about at this presentation. To get a better idea of what he might highlight, let’s look at some of the main topics in the last presentation. At this time it was extremely early in the development of not only Starship but Starbase. A lot of the presentation focused on the future of Starship and highlighted the majority of ambitious goals the company was working towards up until around right now. It highlighted Starship and how it would fall prior to relighting its engines, it also focused on the heat shield and how Starship would re-enter the atmosphere. They even talked about the orbital launch mount, tower, and how Starbase would become a launch and production site of the future. Not to mention one of the best parts of these presentations are the high-quality Starship renders that usually accompany the main talking points. In addition to these main topics, Musk covered a lot more general information related to current Starship progress, future goals, and the overall plan for the coming years. Thanks to SpaceX’s hard work over the past few years, a lot of what Musk highlighted in that 2019 presentation became a reality through the building of Starbase and testing of Starship prototypes. As of right now, Starship has successfully completed a large host of tests including a 10-kilometer flight.

Next up is the long-awaited first orbital test flight that could happen around late March to April. Based on what was mentioned in the last presentation and the progress SpaceX has made, we can provide some good guesses on what Musk will highlight in a few days. One thing we could hope for will be new official renders and animations of Starship. Whether this could be a lunar Starship interior, Mars, in-depth renders of the chopsticks and more, or even a fuel depot Starship, the options are endless. There will also be many main topics that are highlighted throughout the presentation. These could likely be about Raptor 2.0 progress, more information on the chopsticks and what to expect, payload fairing, and much more. These are some of the primary topics that will have quite an impact in the near future, which would match the theme of past presentations. Based on recent tests and more, we could even see the chopsticks stack a Starship themselves in the coming days. While I have some educated guesses on what exactly will be mentioned and displayed on Thursday, we will have to wait and see exactly what is presented.

Progress Since 2019 Presentation

Looking back at the progress and plans since the last presentation provides a perfect comparison and look into the upcoming event this Thursday. Some of the most interesting differences are ones that were not planned or changed after testing. Things like Starship’s design or even plan have changed significantly since the previous presentation. In only about two years, Starbase and Starship have completely evolved in an amazing way. After cryo tests, static fires, 150-meter hops, 10-kilometer flights, and everything in between, SpaceX has gained invaluable information on the next-generation launch vehicle. This has caused many different changes and tweaks, but has helped provide many successful tests and more. Not only has Starship changed and gone through a lot of innovation in the past few years, but Starbase has as well. What were just a few production tents and practically no launch site at all, is now one of the most capable and massive production and orbital launch sites. Looking at the production site, Starships are being produced at a faster speed than ever. This is thanks to the infrastructure throughout Starbase. Things like the mid-bay, high-bay, and now wide-bay, have gone up in a fraction of time and help store and assemble massive Starship stages. Shifting our attention to the launch site, there is now a full orbital launch mount, tower, catching arms, QD arms, orbital tank farm, and much more. These ambitious changes and goals are likely to be highlighted in the upcoming presentation.

Conclusion

It has been around two years since the last Starship presentation. Since then a lot of things mentioned came to fruition and also changed. What many thought was an unrealistic idea was proven to be quite successful in the time between then and now. While Starship and SpaceX still have a lot of challenges ahead of them, they have made impressive progress. Now it’s confirmed only a few days from now on the 10th, there will be another Starship presentation. Here we will learn a lot more about future plans and see a full Starship in the background. We will have to wait and see exactly what is presented and what the future holds for SpaceX and Starship.