SpaceX did Something Unusual with S39 & B20 Section! Blue Origin New Glenn Delayed…

What the heck is actually going on at Starbase? That seems to be the million dollar question echoing around the Texas coast this week. From the mysterious stacking maneuvers in the wrong bays to the prophetic delays of the New Glenn and the historic return journey of humanity's most distant travelers, today is a massive day for Space News. We are also diving deep into the recently announced and somewhat insane collaboration between SpaceX, Intel, and the rest of the Musk-led empire for the TerraFab project. Find out more about all of these developments only on today's episode of Great SpaceX. Starship's preparations for Flight 12 are currently attracting significant attention across the entire aerospace community. With the launch date now likely to land sometime in May of 2026, the month of April is shaping up to be a frantic period of testing, data crunching, and perhaps a few more gray hairs for the engineering team. But while we are all staring at the Flight 12 hardware, SpaceX is already playing 4D chess by prepping for Flight 13, which many believe could be the first true orbital mission for the Starship platform. Surprisingly, these two upcoming flights have a very intimate and somewhat strange connection that surfaced just this week. Specifically, the forward section of B-20 has just made its grand debut. In the new version 3 stacking process, this is usually the final piece of the puzzle to be installed on the super-heavy booster. However, instead of taking a predictable trip to Megabay 1 to join the rest of its booster body, it took a very unexpected detour to Megabay 2. For those of you keeping score at home, Megabay 2 is primarily used for ship stacking, not booster sections. So naturally, the community collectively asked, what, why? Why did it go there? It appears we are witnessing a test that has never been attempted quite like this before. The clamps on the B-20 forward section had additional lines added as it sat at the entrance of Megabay 2, and a ship lifting jig was brought in to assist with S-39. All these signs point toward an integration test between S-39 and B-20's forward section. Many industry insiders predict this is an interface test, where S-39 will be fitted and placed directly on top of the booster section to simulate the physical connection between the two stages. This is absolutely critical because Starship has officially entered the V3 era. In this version, the Super Heavy has undergone major changes to its forward section, including a redesigned hot staging ring, while the ship's aft section has been modified to house the more powerful and compact Raptor 3 engines. This creates a whole new world of differences in stacking compared to the previous versions we have grown used to seeing. Early testing like this allows SpaceX to resolve hardware mismatches long before the vehicle is sitting on the orbital launch mount. If there is a clearance issue or a sensor alignment problem, they can fix it now in the comfort of the bay. If they waited until the full 120-meter stack was assembled on the pad, fixing even a minor error would involve a massive, time-consuming rollback to the bays, which would cost them weeks of valuable time. Now there is a slight structural concern here that I have to mention. A fully assembled ship, even without fuel, weighs roughly 100 tons. Placing that kind of incredible mass onto a single booster section does not have the support of the rest of the stack that doesn't have the support of the rest of the stack sounds a bit like a recipe for a very expensive pancake. I could just imagine the engineers standing there with their fingers crossed hoping the whole thing doesn't just fold like an aluminum can. However, SpaceX engineers are likely using internal support systems and specialized jigs to distribute the weight carefully. The goal isn't necessarily to see if the section can hold the ship for a week, but rather to see if the plumbing and electrical connections actually shake hands correctly. Because this is happening inside Mega Bay 2, we might not see the full glory of the test as it unfolds. SpaceX tends to keep the bay doors closed when they're doing the real secret sauce work. But you can bet that if a single leaked photo of that V3 interface surfaces, we will be all over it immediately. Once this phase is done, S39 will likely head to Massey's for its static fire campaign, while the B20 forward section will finally reunite with the rest of its booster body in Mega Bay 1. In addition to this mystery, work on the remaining hardware for both flights will continue. For Flight 12, B19 will soon be rolled out for testing. This is evident over at the second orbital launch mount where scaffolding in the inner ring is being removed, indicating that the work there is finally complete. The B19 test will likely take place as early as next week. And as for Flight 13, S40 will continue to be checked, and currently, its heat shield is looking fairly complete. However, it will also have to wait for work on the Flight 12 ship to be finished before it makes its first real movement. Starbase is making some busy progress after a first quarter without any launches, and this is likely the time for Starship to truly accelerate. Are you ready to join them? Type in always ready in the comments down below to show your support for the SpaceX team. Then, don't hesitate to hit the like and subscribe buttons if you haven't already to continue supporting SpaceX and our channel during this important upcoming phase. Okay, now let's move on to the news about Blue Origin and the New Glenn rocket. If you watched the previous episode, you probably remember that I said New Glenn wouldn't launch on April 10th. Well, I called it. A delay was definitely going to happen, and that has officially come true. Go ahead, call me Kev Adamas. Anyways, the reason is pretty straightforward. In CEO Dave Limp's latest update, we see that although the two stages of New Glenn have been mated together, they are still sitting comfortably inside the factory. Even though the second stage has been tested and the booster is being reused, it still needs time to physically move to the pad, stack vertically, and complete final preparations before the engines actually ignite. So in the latest update, New Glenn 3 has officially been postponed to April 16th, which is almost a week later than originally planned. The launch window will be approximately 3 hours long, running from 6.45 in the morning to 9.43 AM. And this doesn't seem like a huge delay in the grand scheme of things, but the problem is that with these kinds of delays, the momentum can sometimes stall. If there are further delays after this one, well, things will start to feel a bit disappointing for the Team Blue fans. Regarding the mission itself, New Glenn 3 will still launch the Bluebird Block 2 payload in collaboration with AST Space Mobile. This payload contains 2,400 square feet of communications arrays, which is just massive. It's estimated to deliver 10 times the bandwidth capacity of the previous Block 1 satellites. It'll hopefully create continuous connectivity to standard smartphones across the entire United States, providing peak data transfer speeds of up to 120 megabits per second. It's basically a giant celestial cell tower. Besides the payload deployment, another focus for Blue Origin will be another attempt at a booster landing. If they are successful, it'll mark two successful New Glenn booster landings in total. And they can be quite proud of achieving this after only three flights. But the challenges remain significant. Problems can arise anywhere and anytime in this business. Therefore, Blue Origin will need to prepare very carefully. Because if they fail now, it could take them many months to recover their confidence and their hardware. So let's wait and see how they prepare for the big day on the 16th. Next, we are moving to an update on NASA's Artemis 2. Our previous updates saw the Orion capsule reach its furthest distance from Earth, officially breaking the long-standing record of Apollo 13. Orion and its four brave astronauts passed through the far side of the moon, where they were briefly shrouded in total darkness. Related to this phase, NASA provided some absolutely stunning images of the eclipse. When the moon obscured the sunlight from the perspective of the spacecraft, this could easily be the most iconic image of space exploration this year, especially for astronomy enthusiasts who love seeing familiar celestial events from a completely unfamiliar vantage point. Additionally, during the moments of sunlight, the crew also captured images of the far side of the moon. It remains a rugged, unforgiving surface filled with craters and ancient volcanoes, which is truly fascinating and worth exploring once we actually land humans back on the surface in the coming years. As a treat for everyone, NASA has created a vertically-oriented, edited image file that you can choose to set as your phone wallpaper. I've already set mine, and it looks incredible. You can click the link on NASA's xPage to select one for yourself. The link is also down in the description below if you want to check it out. Anyways, back to the mission itself. The team quickly passed the fly-by-the-moon phase, and right now, we are on day 7 and day 8 of the mission as the long return journey begins. Similar to the journey out to the moon, this return leg also lasts about 4 days. It'll end when the Orion capsule performs a high-stakes re-entry and lands in the Pacific Ocean. But during the journey home, quite a few interesting tasks are also taking place. The highlight will be Orion's communication test with the International Space Station. This will be like a check to see if Orion can maintain a steady data link with the ISS while performing deep space missions. Communication with the station could provide crucial support in emergency situations, which will be very important for the Artemis landing missions in the coming years. We will keep you up to date on all other interesting tasks that they have to do on their to-do list for the next 48 hours. And finally, let's take a look at TerraFab, the massive joint venture between SpaceX, Tesla, and XAI that just added a major heavy hitter to its ranks, Intel. This $25 billion semiconductor complex at GigaTexas aims to consolidate the entire chip-making pipeline under one roof, effectively ending dependence on third-party manufacturers. Intel recently shared their excitement on X, stating they are proud to help refactor Silicon Fab technology to reach TerraFab's staggering goal of 1 terabyte-terawatt-per-year-terawatt-per-year of compute. SpaceX confirmed that this effort will close the gap between today's chip production and the future's demand, a future among the stars, with Musk in the back hooting and hollering with, looking forward to working with Intel on the TerraFab. This alliance isn't just about volume, it's about specialized hardware. The facility will produce energy-efficient processors for Tesla's robots and self-driving cars, alongside radiation-hardened chips for SpaceX's satellites and XAI's orbital data centers. TerraFab's target is roughly 50 times the current global output, which sounds insane, but I personally think it's the only way to sustain a future on Mars. You can't exactly call up a supplier on Earth for a replacement part when you're 100 million miles away, you have to own the means of production. Are you excited about this partnership? Let me know. In any case, folks, that's been it for today. From mysterious tests in Texas to massive new factories, the pace of progress is relentless. Thanks for tuning in. This has been Kevin from GreatSpaceX, and we truly appreciate your support as we track these missions together. If you liked this update, please remember, like, subscribe, and hit the bell so you never miss a deep dive. Until next time, keep your eyes on the horizon, and keep looking up!