Whats Next for Starship?

I'm still in a state of disbelief on October 13th 2024 the world witnessed something that many said was impossible we saw the largest rocket booster in the world return to its Launchpad and be caught by arms on the launch Tower proving that the largest rocket in the world can be reused so let's discuss what this means and what comes next for this incredible technology Welcome to Tomorrow the future is here- 5 4 3 2 1 2 [Applause] 1 we have left [Applause] on vehicle's pitching downrange not only his SpaceX proven that they can catch or rather land the super heavy booster they have opened a path to take the most amount of stuff into space by using this method of catching the booster with the affectionately named mechazilla arms the rocket itself doesn't need Landing legs and can use that extra weight for more fuel or more payload into space with every single test every booster and every ship that SpaceX makes they're learning new things and pushing the performance of this rocket to its limit limit there will be many upgrades to come and improvements over time with this the fifth test flight of Starship and after the successful catch of the booster SpaceX can move towards finalizing their plans for the next generation of Starship that will get all the way to orbit and start doing actual space missions but a quick replay with me and Jared head's reaction to this amazing moment on the lit crap we got online right now come on come on this is on oh my that isos to come on this going to come on oh yes yes no my god did it they did it did it big freaky did it [Applause] holy crap absolutely insane oh my goodness and he's on the launch Mount not the flaps super happy I can still hardly believe it I wish I'd kept our cameras on for when we were reacting to that but lesson learned for next time that was such an incredible moment I mean just look at this just look at this this is incredible I can't believe that everything went according to plan and how smoothly this work worked all the slap tests so that it has that nice little bounce when the arms get on there I mean just look at how smooth that is able to catch that this worked and I'm so excited for them so what comes next after this the immediate next goal is flight test six which is going to have a really similar profile to what we just saw they already have clearance from the FAA to launch that way unless SpaceX changes too many things for flight 6 and then they would have to reapply for a license but if everything stays the same the Starship serial number 31 is ready to go and has completed key tests ahead of flight like this static firing the booster for flight 6 isn't quite ready yet but could be soon possibly even before the end of this year SpaceX doesn't plan to reuse the booster that they just caught which was serial number 12 or booster 12 that's going to become a museum piece for flight six SpaceX intends to use booster 13 which may be their first one to be reown multiple times if everything goes according to plan unless SpaceX decides to change the goal for flight six the next step after that would be to get all the way into orbit and start deploying starlink satellites and not their regular ones their next generation and bigger starlink satellites that's going to be deployed with their Pez dispenser they're going to pop out as you see through a small door and it's not even really that small it just looks small compared to the rest of Starship I know that SpaceX tested opening and closing this door on flight test three but I don't know if they did any Pez dispenser tests on the fourth or most recent fifth test flight things are going to change with this system anyway after flight six and even though the next Starship after that is slightly taller the position of the Pez dispenser is in a different spot and I'm really hoping that with flight 7 they will be able to do more tests with that and get closer to being able to deploy starlink satellites on regular missions we might see that as soon as next year after SpaceX has the ability to recover their Starships either at a ship at Sea a landing Zone near Bach chica or catch them at the launch Tower like they just did with the booster soon as they're able to reuse the Starship portion they should be able to begin regular starlink missions and then move on to the next step after that orbital refueling SpaceX has already tested transferring fuel from one tank to another and now they have to prove that they can transfer fuel from Starship to Starship which I'm sure that they will be able to do in time the question is whether they will start to try it with the second version of Starship or the third larger version of Starship SpaceX May build something that resembles ship 26 with no flaps no heat shield tiles and more room for propellant tanks that would stay in Earth orbit and be a gas station for future missions however I think that that idea is evolving and nothing is for certain yet nothing is final with this entire Starship program after they prove orbital refueling the next goal after that and probably the most ambitious is the hls or human Landing system for the moon this is going to be used by emis 3 to Revo with an Orion capsule in lunar orbit and take NASA astronauts to the surface of the Moon again with which right now is scheduled for no earlier than 2028 no flaps or heat shields but landing legs an elevator and space for astronauts their gear and everything required to keep them alive and return to the Orion capsule so that they can return to Earth this Mission and others like it is going to take a big priority for SpaceX and NASA I think that after starlink and propellant refueling we're going to see the moonlander happen before anything else including launching satellites and bigger payload for other customers there has been some work done on a larger payload Bay for Starship but because of other issues that have taken priority for redesigns I don't think that we're going to see any Hungry Hippo hatches on a actual flight for a while then again we could see flight tests in 2026 or even as soon as next year everything is evolving and the flexibility of their program not to mention their speed is something to be admired and emulated ated I think that whenever they do start doing these cargo missions with the bigger payload door I think quite a few customers are going to line up after their moonlander and after the large cargo version I think that the crude version of Starship is going to come last and yes the moonlander is a crude Starship but the crude Starship that would be able to land back on Earth and be recovered and reused quickly I don't think that they're going to start doing missions with crude Starship until there's some sort of destination or enough paying customers to do a Polaris type of mission on Starship I think though or maybe just hope that there will be new space stations in orbit or that SpaceX can be fast enough to be able to do a mission to the International Space Station before it retires in 2030 hopefully they will be able to do that and if they're fast enough at getting crude Starship online and if it's safe to do so to actually dock with the International Space Station we might actually be able to see that it's you know a little over 5 years until the retirement of the International Space Station so that could happen of course the eventual goal is Mars personally I think that their ambition is going to accelerate them and I take them at their word that they will start launching Dem Mars every two years they're going to be much further along 2 years from now and will be in a position to begin launching uncrewed missions of some sort they'll probably do some sort of orbital Mission first like maybe just parking some fuel in orbit around Mars or even setting up a starlink network or a Mars link if you will and they might even deploy some other Mars orbiters for NASA or some other space agency or they might even do it all at once maybe they will send fleets of ships to do everything at the same time you can just imagine all these Starships waiting in Orit for the planets to align and then this gigantic Starfleet taking over Mars yeah maybe they won't be ready in four years to take humans to Mars but if they keep going they will be ready eventually maybe in 6 years or in 8 years or maybe just maybe they will be ready in four years I mean it wouldn't be the first time that they've proved Skeptics wrong they just proved Skeptics wrong this week it could happen as long as things continue to progress I believe that SpaceX will do it eventually this incredible flight that they did on October 13th of 2024 just got them closer to achieving that goal of sending humans to Mars of course there are still many steps that need to be accomplished but I'm really excited for everything that needs to happen and will happen between now and getting the first humans to Mars and if SpaceX can pull this off if they can send humans to Mars in the next four years and if there's no more delays with the Artemis program something crazy to think about is that the return to the moon and the first humans on Mars might happen in the same year 2028 it's probably not going to happen like that I'm sure there's going to be some changes but if it does go down like that that is wild to think about whatever happens I am extremely excited for it and hope hopefully things go well over the next couple of months and couple of years so that we can see that future happen so let me know what you think do you think that their next steps are going to follow this order where first they're going to try to launch starlink satellites then figure out the propellant Depot stuff then the human Landing system and then the larger payload Bay before finally the crude Starships do you think that it's going to go out in that order or do you think that they're going to do things a little bit differently as I've said a couple of times this is a ever evolving program and changes all the time I am so excited for whatever is going to happen however it happens and I feel very lucky to be alive during this time that we get to witness this so thank you very much for watching this video be sure to smash that like button and subscribe if you haven't already and turn on notifications so that you know whenever we upload a video or go live thank you again for watching this video keep moving onwards upwards and don't forget add Astra to the Stars